Hierarchically macro-/mesoporous structured Al2O3 and TiO2-Al2O3 materials were used as supports to prepare novel Co-Mo-Ni hydrodesulfurization(HDS) catalysts. A commercial Co-Mo-Ni/Al2O3 catalyst without macroporous channels was taken as a reference. The catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscope(SEM), transmission electron microscope(TEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry(EDS), N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction(XRD), and temperature programmed reduction(TPR). The apparent activities of the hierarchi-cally porous catalysts for thiophene HDS were superior to those of the commercial catalyst, which was mainly as-cribed to the diffusion-enhanced effect of the hierarchically bimodal pore structure. The addition of titania to alu-mina in the support helped to weaken the interaction between the active phase and the support, and as a result, the novel Co-Mo-Ni/TiO2-Al2O3 catalyst with a low titania loading(28%, by mass) in the support exhibited high HDS activities, even without presulfiding treatment. However, the catalyst with a high titania loading(61%, by mass) showed much lower activities, which was mostly caused by its low surface area and pore volume as well as the non-uniform distribution of titania and alumina. The kinetic analysis further demonstrated the support effects on HDS activities of the catalysts.
A series of CuO/ZnO/Al_2O_3, CuO/ZnO/ZrO_2/Al_2O_3 and CuO/ZnO/CeO_2/Al_2O_3 catalysts were prepared by coprecipitation and characterized by N_2 adsorption, XRD, TPR, N_2O titration and HRTEM. The catalytic performances of these catalysts for the steam reforming of methanol were evaluated in a laboratory-scale fixed-bed reactor at 0.1 MPa and temperatures between 473 and 543 K. The results showed that the catalytic activity depended greatly on the catalyst reducibility and the specific surface area of Cu. An approximate linear correlation between the catalytic activity and the Cu surface area was found for all catalysts investigated in this study.Compared to CuO/ZnO/Al_2O_3, the ZrO_2-doped CuO/ZnO/Al_2O_3 exhibited higher activity and selectivity to CO,while the CeO_2-doped catalyst displayed lower activity and selectivity. Finally, an intrinsic kinetic study was carried out over a screened CuO/ZnO/CeO_2/Al_2O_3 catalyst in the absence of internal and external mass transfer effects. A good agreement was observed between the model-derived effluent concentrations of CO(CO_2) and the experimental data. The activation energies for the reactions of methanol-steam reforming, water-gas shift and methanol decomposition over CuO/ZnO/CeO_2/Al_2O_3 were 93.1, 85.1 and 116.5 k J·mol^(-1), respectively.
Ni/Mg–Al catalysts derived from hydrotalcite-type precursors were prepared by a co-precipitation technique and applied to steam reforming of methane. By comparison with Ni/γ-Al2O3 and Ni/α-Al2O3 catalysts prepared by incipient wetness impregnation, the Ni/Mg–Al catalyst presented much higher activity as a result of higher specific surface area and better Ni dispersion. The Ni/Mg–Al catalyst with a Ni/Mg/Al molar ratio of 0.5:2.5:1 exhibited the highest activity for steam methane reforming and was selected for kinetic investigation. With external and internal diffusion limitations eliminated, kinetic experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure and over a temperature range of 823–973 K. The results demonstrated that the overall conversion of CH4 and the conversion of CH4 to CO2were strongly influenced by reaction temperature, residence time of reactants as well as molar ratio of steam to methane. A classical Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model proposed by Xu and Froment(1989)fitted the experimental data with excellent agreement. The estimated adsorption parameters were consistent thermodynamically.
