Preparation of supported skeletal Ni catalyst and its catalytic performance on dicyclopentadiene hydrogenation

• Supported skeletal Ni catalyst with excellent compressive strength was obtained.
• The catalyst exhibited good catalytic performance on the hydrogenation of DCPD.
• Supported skeletal Ni catalyst could be applied to fixed-bed reactor.
• The catalyst was more active than the traditional Raney Ni on DCPD hydrogenation.

Preparation and catalytic performance of skeletal Ni catalysts supported on Al2O3 were studied. The effects of alloy powder/pseudo-boehmite powder mass ratios and calcination temperatures of precursors on surface properties, compressive strength and catalytic performance were investigated. It was found that catalysts prepared by precursors which were molded with alloy powder/pseudo-boehmite powder mass ratio of 4/6 and calcinated at 860 °C in air atmosphere exhibited excellent compressive strength (16.11 N/mm), high dicyclopentadiene conversion (> 95%) and appropriate THDCPD selectivity (> 50%) during 1000-hour evaluation. The operational conditions were obtained as following: T = 120 °C, P = 2.0 MPa, LSHV = 2.0 h− 1 and hydrogen–oil ratio = 300:1.

This figure exhibits the catalytic performance of supported skeletal Ni catalyst on hydrogenation of DCPD. The catalyst can be applied to fixed-bed reactor due to its high compressive strength (16.11 N/mm), which overcomes one of the disadvantages of traditional Raney Ni catalyst — inferior compressive strength. Furthermore, the catalyst shows better conversion rate of DCPD and selectivity of THDCPD in comparison with traditional Raney Ni catalyst.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide