Influence of phosphorus content on properties and performance of NiW nanocatalyst supported on activated red mud in atmospheric diesel hydrodesulfurization.

The influence of phosphorus promoter addition on structural properties and hydrodesulfurization activity of NiW nanocatalysts supported on activated red mud, called NiW/P-ARM, was studied at atmospheric pressure. Before red mud usage, it was treated by Pratt and Christoverson technique and then NiW/P-ARM nanocatalysts with different phosphorus loadings were prepared by impregnation technique. The prepared samples were characterized by XRF, XRD, FESEM, BET, FTIR and H-TPR analyses. Base on the obtained results, XRF analysis indicated that activation process remarkably decreased Ca and Na content in the red mud. XRD results indicated the high dispersion of the tungstate, nickel and active phase (NiWO) species on the surface of activated red mud support. FESEM analysis illustrated that all particles of NiW/P-ARM were less than 100 nm. TPR measurements revealed that phosphorus-promoted nanocatalysts had higher reduction potentials than nanocatalyst without promoter. The catalytic ability of synthesized nanocatalysts was investigated in a fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure and 380 °C using Iso diesel and light diesel as the reaction feeds. It was found that NiW/P-ARM with 1.5 wt.% prompter showed higher activity for hydrodesulfurization process and further addition of P promoter decreased the catalytic activity that may be due to the decrease in surface area or agglomeration particles.