The hydrodesulphurization (HDS) of crude oils is an important industrial process to remove sulfur from fuels. There are two pathways though which HDS can be achieved: the direct route and the indirect route. The direct route of the HDS results in the synthesis of biphenyl as the primary reaction product. The indirect route has shown to have cyclohexylbenzene as the major reaction product though a hydrogenation of DBT. In this study, DBT was used as a model compound to study the removal of sulfur from a decahydronaphthalene solution. The catalyst was synthesized through low pressure pathways in the absence of H<sub>2</sub>S. All the synthesized catalyst were investigated using a combination of SEM, RAMAN spectroscopy, and XRD. Subsequent to synthesis, the materials were studied for their ability to remove DBT from solution and the reaction products were analyzed. It was observed that the major reaction pathway was the direct desulphurization pathway and zero order reaction kinetics was observed for the HDS process. Furthermore, a rate constant of 2.3 x 10<sup>-6</sup> moles (DBT)/s g (of catalyst) with a final removal above 90% was observed. The percent removal and catalytic rate is higher than that observed of most available catalysts, under the same testing conditions.

Hydrodesulphurization of DBT using CoMoS2 catalyst

249th National Meeting (2015)

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