Effect of Inorganic Salts on Beta-FDU-12 Micro-/Mesoporous Materials with the Applications in Dibenzothiphene Hydrodesulfurization

Beta/FDU-12 (BF) series composite materials were successfully synthesized with different inorganic salts (KCl, MgCl2, MnCl2, and CuCl2). The supports and corresponding catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), pyridine-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Py-FTIR), H2temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). NiMo/BF catalysts were evaluated for dibenzothiophene (DBT) hydrodesulfurization (HDS). Consequently, NiMo/BF–Mg catalyst displayed the highest HDS performance (98.58%), as the weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) was 10 h–1. The synergistic attribution of its prominent support texture, the excellent acid and redox properties of NiMo catalyst, including more B and L acids (193.6 and 118.0 μmol·g–1at 200 and 350 °C, respectively), strong metal–support interaction, smaller stacking number (3.75), shorter stacking length (3.11), higher dispersion degree (0.29), and higher sulfidation degree of Mo sulfide species (61.3%), result in high DBT HDS activity. Moreover, NiMo/BF–Mg catalyst exhibited a higher HYD/DDS ratio (0.29), due to the greater number of L acids and higher value of 0.23.