The morphology, chemical composition, and reactivity of mesoporous materials impregnated with ZnO (SBA -15) towards hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of thiophene were studied. Multiple catalysts with various compositions of Zn were studied. The morphology and chemical compositions of the catalyst were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The reactivity of thiophene with hydrogen on unconventional ZnO clusters supported on mesoporous SBA-15 catalyst was studied in a gas-chromatograph based mini flow reactor. Thiophene is part of natural petroleum and it is a simple enough probe molecule to obtain mechanistic molecular-level information. The reactivity of thiophene on commercially available CoMo (cobalt molybdenum) catalyst supported on silica was studied and compared with the results of ZnO clusters. This research project on hydrodesulfurization will help in the current need for cleaner fuels with a new generation of catalysts with higher reactivity.

Comparative study of thiophene hydrodesulfurization on mesoporous silica sieve (SBA-15) supported zinc oxide clusters and commercial CoMo catalyst

ACS Spring 2022

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