Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF3-P052
SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW ACIDIC
CATALYSTS FOR DIRECT DESULFURIZATION
Claudia Estefany Rodríguez Nava 1 , Dora Alicia Solis Casados 1 , Tatiana Klimova 2 , Luis Escobar 3
1 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Centro Conjunto de Investigación en Química
Sustentable UAEM-UNAM. Facultad de Química, Mexico. 2 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México, Facultad de Química, Mexico. 3 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ),
Departamento de Física, Mexico.
Sulfur oxides (SOx) are generated mainly by the combustion of fuel fractions in
industries and fuel engines and give rise to problems of environmental pollution
such as the acid rain. Recently, environmental agencies have forced the reduction
of the allowed amount of sulfur compounds in fuels, which has prompted the
search for new materials for the elimination of sulfur. One of the oil refining
processes is Hydrodesulfurization (HDS), consists in the elimination of sulfur from
the fuels, using hydrogen in a pressurized and catalyzed system. HDS of refractory
molecules such as the dibenzothiophene (DBT) and the alkyl-substitutes is a
challenge due to the difficulty of eliminating sulfur with conventional catalysts,
which has caused great interest in developing catalytic formulations with a higher
degree of activity and selectivity. There are two routes for the removal of sulfur from
the DBT molecule, the direct desulphurization (DDS) and the hydrogenation (HYD)
routes, however DDS is preferential, since it preserves the octane of the fuel. For
HDS, bimetallic catalysts based on Mo (W), promoted by Ni (Co) and supported on
Al2O3 are traditionally used. However, recent studies have reported that the use of
trimetallic catalysts improves activity and preserves the selectivity towards DDS; this
added to the fact that there are reports that highlight activity and selectivity are
enhanced when using supports with low acidity. Therefore, in this work the effect
of the addition of potassium on the acidity in the catalytic formulation and on the
selectivity in the desulfurization reaction will be evaluated, for which CoMoW
catalytic formulations supported in Al2O3-MgO-K2O will be synthesized. Acidity was
characterized with n-butylamine titration, the crystalline phases present were
identified using DRX and Raman spectroscopy, electronic transitions and dispersion
(DRS) among others were also studied, in addition, the catalytic performance and
selectivity of these formulations will be evaluated with great expectative towars
direct desulfurization.
Keywords: Trimetallic catalysts, Low acid catalysts, Al2O3 catalyst
Presenting authors email: estefany_rodriguezn@hotmail.com