Noble metal containing Al/Ce/Mg pillared montmorillonite clay as catalysts in the hydrotreating of LCO fractions

An Al/Ce/Mg=50.0/1.0/1.0 atomic ratio (a.r.) pillared montmorillonite was used to support 1.0 wt.% of the bimetallic species Pd/Pt=5.0 and Pd/Au=5.0 a.r. The resulting catalysts were characterized by XRPD, N2 physisorption, ammonia TPD and FT-IR spectroscopy. The catalytic activity in the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis/ring-opening of naphthalene and thio-tolerance to dibenzothiophene were investigated at 6.0 MPa in a flow reactor. Both catalysts showed interesting performances. Of the two catalysts, the former showed higher productivities in hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis/ring-opening compounds together with lower losses in carbon balance and higher thio-tolerance. These results not only confirmed that Pd/Pt is one of the most suitable bimetallic pair for noble metal containing hydrotreating catalysts, but also that the Al/Ce/Mg PILC can be used as low cost support for noble-metal-containing active phases.