Effects of impregnation methods and drying conditions on quinoline hydrodenitrogenation over Ni-W based catalysts

The effects of impregnation methods (co-impregnation and sequential impregnation) and drying conditions (air and vacuum) on the structure and catalytic behavior of MCM-41 supported Ni-W catalysts were investigated. The catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), diffuse reflectance UV-Vis absorbance spectroscopy (DRS), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and pyridine adsorbed infrared spectroscopy (Py-IR) techniques. They were tested for hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of quinoline at temperatures of 300-400 deg C. The HDN results showed that the catalysts prepared by co-impregnation were more active than the catalysts prepared by sequential impregnation and the catalysts prepared by drying under vacuum were more active than the catalysts dried in air. Characterization revealed that the co-impregnation method and drying under vacuum promoted the dispersion of W, the formation of the active phases, and the formation of acidic sites on the catalysts. (author)