Catal Lett (2014) 144:285–292
DOI 10.1007/s10562-013-1131-2
Novel Binary Promoter NiCoMo Layered Molybdate Catalyst:
Synthesis, Characterization and Hydrodesulfurization Property
Changlong Yin • Huan Liu • Xuehui Li •
Yaping Wang • Bin Liu • Leiyan Zhao •
Chenguang Liu
Received: 12 July 2013 / Accepted: 4 October 2013 / Published online: 31 October 2013
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract A novel binary promoter NiCoMo layered
molybdate was synthesized as potential hydrodesulfuriza-
tion (HDS) catalyst precursor by chemical precipitation
from a solution containing nickel nitrate, cobalt nitrate and
ammonium heptamolybdate. NiMo and CoMo layered
molybdates were also prepared for comparison by the same
method. The NiCoMo, NiMo and CoMo layered molyb-
dates were characterized by means of N2 physisorption,
XRD, FT-IR, TG–DSC–MS, SEM and HRTEM, and cat-
alytic properties were evaluated in the continuous HDS of
dibenzothiophene (DBT) and straight-run gas oil. The
characterization results indicated the three precursors were
endowed with the same structure of ammonium nickel
molybdate, and catalytic results showed that the NiCoMo
catalyst exhibited higher HDS activity towards DBT and
straight-run gas oil, which might be more attractive for
industrial applications.
Keywords Nickel cobalt molybdate
Nickel
molybdate
Cobalt molybdate
Hydrodesulfurization

Dibenzothiophene
ULSD
1 Introduction
More stringent legislation for cleaner environment and
lower contents of sulfur in automotive fuels constrain the
refiners to update or improve the hydrotreating plants [1].
C. Yin (&)
H. Liu
X. Li
Y. Wang
B. Liu

L. Zhao
C. Liu
Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CNPC, State Key Laboratory of
Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum,
Qingdao 266555, Shandong, China
e-mail: yincl@upc.edu.cn
The cost effective and efficient choice is frequently
achieved by the implementation of highly active hyd-
rodesulfurization (HDS) catalysts, and a great enhancement
of HDS activity could be achieved by organic additives on
supported HDS catalysts, like ethyleneglycol and triethyl-
eneglycol, which were attributed to the formation of so-
called ‘‘NiMoS phase’’ or ‘‘CoMoS phase’’ [2, 3]. Another
representative is the unsupported catalyst called NEBULA,
which is a Ni–Mo–W trimetallic catalyst and supposed to
be catalytically active in hydrotreating, reaching four times
the activity of the conventional supported catalysts [4, 5].
The success of NEBULA accelerate the investigation of
unsupported catalysts. Decomposition of thiosalts [5–7],
sulfurization of oxide precursor [8], and homogeneous
sulfide precipitation [9] were often tried out to prepare
specialized unsupported catalysts, and some other studies
were carried out with the molybdenum carbide [10] or
nitride [11].
As groundbreaking work in the synthesis of molybdate
material leaded by Pezerat [12] in identifying a series of
molybdate compounds with the ideal formula (NH4)
H2xNi3-xO(OH)(MoO4)2, where 0 B x B 3/2, the crystal
structure, which consists of molybdate tetrahedral and
nickel octahedral forming layers perpendicular to the c
axis, was generated by Ying and coworkers [13]. The
nonstoichiometry solid solution composing of unique
molybdate layered structure and promoter metal might be
of great potential inspiration for design novel HDS catalyst.
More recently, we reported unsupported NiMo catalyst
derived from a novel porous ammonium nickel molybdate
(NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2 and exhibited much high cata-
lytic activity towards deep HDS of gas oil, which were
attributed to efficient formation Ni–Mo–S structure from
the crystalline ammonium nickel molybdate [14]. In the
light to explore efficient HDS catalyst, a novel binary
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promoter NiCoMo unsupported catalyst was firstly pre-
pared with NiCoMo layered molybdate synthesized
through chemical precipitation, and the NiMo and CoMo
unsupported catalysts were prepared for comparison, and
evaluated in the continuous HDS of dibenzothiophene
(DBT) and straight-run gas oil.
2 Experimental Section
2.1 Synthesis of Layered Molybdates
The layered molybdate were synthesized by chemical
precipitation method as follows. The mixtures of ammo-
nium heptamolybdate with nickel nitrate or cobalt nitrate
were dissolved in deionized water, with the molar ratios
1:1, 1:1 or 1:1:2 referring to NiMo, CoMo or NiCoMo,
respectively. The solution was added to flask, heated and
stirred at 90 °C. The addition of concentrated ammonium
hydroxide (28.8 % NH3) to the solution containing NiMo
precipitated a green solid that dissolved in an excess of
ammonia, giving a dark blue solution, when it turns to
CoMo and NiCoMo, the solid and solution changed to be
purple and dark blue, respectively. The solution was stirred
and heated for 12 h, resulting in the formation of the pre-
cipitate. The products were isolated by vacuum filtration,
washed with deionized water, and dried overnight at 80 °C
and atmospheric pressure. The layered molybdate were
labeled as NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors according
to the elemental composition.
2.2 Preparation of Catalyst
The catalyst preparation procedure has previously been
described in detail elsewhere [14]. The layered molybdate
precursors were firstly grinded, then mixed evenly with
alumina sol (alumina occupying 20 wt%) under the drop-
wise adding of deionized water. Then the mixture were
extruded into rods 1.6 mm in diameter. After that, the rods
were dried in air at 110 °C for 12 h, followed by calcina-
tion in a muffle furnace at 350 °C for 6 h. The catalysts
were labeled as NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo catalysts
according to the precursors used.
An industrial NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst (24 wt% MoO3,
4 wt% NiO, BET specific surface area of 225 m2 g-1) was
used as reference to compare the HDS activity of straight-
run gas oil with NiCoMo catalyst.
2.3 Precursor and Catalyst Characterization
X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out
with a Rigaku D/max-IIA diffractometer using a graphite-
filter Cu Ka radiation at a scan rate of 2° min-1. The
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C. Yin et al.
Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum of the pre-
cursor was collected on a Nexus spectrometer (NiColet,
USA) using KBr disks. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption
experiment was measured on a Micromeritics TRISTAR
3020 adsorption analyzer (USA). A FEI Quanta200 scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) was used to perform
morphological analysis. Thermogravimetry–differential
scanning calorimeters–mass spectrum (TG–DSC–MS)
analysis was carried out by applying a thermal analysis
instrument combined with a MS instrument (STA449c-
QMS403) at a heating rate of 10 °C min-1 under a high-
purity nitrogen atmosphere. The high-resolution transmis-
sion electron microscope (HRTEM) micrographs were
recorded using a JEM 2010 microscope operated at 200 kV.
2.4 Catalyst Activity
Catalytic activity measurements were carried out in a high
pressure fixed bed down-flow micro-reactor with an inner
diameter of 10 mm, 40 cm in length. Ten milliliter of the
catalyst was placed in the center of the reactor without any
diluent. The catalyst was first treated at 110 °C for 1 h and
maintained at 320 °C for 12 h by a liquid stream contain-
ing 3.0 wt% CS2 in cyclohexane for sulfidation. 2.0 wt%
DBT in petroleum ether (boiling range from 90 to 120 °C)
was then pumped into the reactor at the test temperature.
The reaction conditions were temperature 280 °C, pressure
3.0 MPa, H2/feed ratio 300, and liquid hourly space
velocity (LHSV) 3.0 h-1. The product was cooled and
separated into gaseous and liquid products in a high-pres-
sure separator. The liquid products were analyzed by a
Varian 3800 gas chromatography equipped with flame
ionization detector (GC-FID) and a 50 m OV101 capillary
column. The HDS of straight-run gas oil (produced by
West Pacific Petrochemical Company Ltd., Dalian) was
operated at the same sulfidation conditions with above
mentioned and the reaction conditions were pressure
6.0 MPa, H2/feed ratio 600, temperature 350 °C and LHSV
2.0 h-1. The sulfur composition of liquid products was
analyzed using Varian 3800 gas chromatography equipped
with a pulse flame photometric detector (GC-PFPD) and a
30 m fused-silica capillary column.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Characterization of Molybdate Precursors
3.1.1 XRD
The NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors through chem-
ical precipitation reaction were characterized by XRD, and
the results were depicted in Fig. 1. Figure 1 exhibited that
Novel Binary Promoter NiCoMo Layered Molybdate Catalyst
Fig. 1 XRD patterns of NiMo, CoMo, NiCoMo precursors and
simulated (NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2
the diffraction peaks of the three precursors were almost the
same to much extent, whose 2h peaks were detected at
12.1°, 17.4°, 23.5°, 26.5°, 29.6°, 33.4°, which indicated that
the synthesized molybdate were endowed with the structure
of (NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2 (PDF card No. 50-1414) that
was ascribed to a member of solid solution series confirmed
by Pezerat [12]. The compounds obtained with the structure
of (NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2 were certified to crystallize in
a rhombohedral space group R-3m with lattice parameters
a = 6.0147 Å, b = 6.0147 Å, c = 21.8812 Å, a = 90.0°,
b = 90.0°, and c = 120.0° [13]. The binary promoter tri-
metallic NiCoMo precursor was similar to the bimetallic
CoMo and NiMo precursors in terms of XRD pattern, which
indicated that the Co (or Ni) had incorporated into the NiMo
(or CoMo) precursor, which might have certain effect on the
synergetic effect of HDS catalyst [15].
3.1.2 FT-IR
The FT-IR results of NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors
were shown in Fig. 2. The three precursors exhibited nearly
the same FT-IR pattern, similar to the results of XRD
characterization as shown in Fig. 1. From Fig. 2, it can be
seen that the adsorption peaks occurred from 3,300 to
3,050 cm-1, which were attributed to the m3 N–H asym-
metric stretching vibration [13], and from 2,000 to
1,600 cm-1, which were ascribed to the torsional vibration
of NH4?. Meanwhile the FT-IR peak at 1,410 cm-1 was
confirmed as the deformation vibration of H–N–H [13],
and the peaks between 1,000 and 700 cm-1 with different
intensities were assigned to the stretching vibrations of
bridging oxygen m (Mo–O–Mo) [16]. Therefore it can be
deduced that the ammonium ions were a part of the
287
Fig. 2 FT-IR patterns of NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors
synthesized NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors com-
bined with the results of FT-IR.
3.1.3 TG–DSC–MS
Figure 3 exhibited the TG–DSC–MS curves of NiMo,
CoMo and NiCoMo precursors, and that of NiMo precursor
was similar to the curve shown in a previous paper [14].
For NiMo precursor, the weight loss occurs over a tem-
perature range from 350 to 500 °C, and the main endo-
thermic peak was at the temperature of about 407 °C (from
DSC curve) with total weight loss ratio about 11.0 %
(theoretical calculation 10.8 %) [14]. At the same time, MS
analysis presents strong H2O? (m/z = 18, not shown in
Fig. 3) and NH3? (m/z = 17) peaks at about 411 °C,
indicating that the release of H2O and NH3 occurred during
the structure decomposition at the stage [17]. As for CoMo
precursor, there existed one main endothermic peak at the
temperature of 334 °C, and the total weight loss was about
10.3 % from 300 to 390 °C (theoretical calculation
10.6 %). Meanwhile NH3 and H2O were also detected from
MS analysis similar to that in NiMo precursor. However,
the NiCoMo precursor displayed quite different TG–DSC–
MS pattern from those of NiMo and CoMo precursors, the
total weight loss ratio in the temperature range from 290 to
475 °C was about 11.0 %, and there existed two main
endothermic peaks at the temperature of 333 and 418 °C,
respectively. The intensity of endothermic peak at 333 °C
was weaker than that at 418 °C, and the two endothermic
peak could be both ascribed to the decomposition of the
NiCoMo precursor, for the minority of NH3 and H2O was
released at the former temperature with the weight loss
ratio of 1.9 %, and the majority was detected at the latter
temperature with the weight loss of 9.1 %, which
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288 C. Yin et al.

Fig. 4 SEM photographs of NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors

so close to that of CoMo precursor that it might be assigned

to the decomposition of CoMo from NiCoMo precursor,
while the endothermic peak at 418 °C increased by 10 °C
compared to that of NiMo precursor, indicating the
increasing thermostability of binary promoter NiCoMo
precursor compared to the NiMo and CoMo precursors.

Fig. 3 TG–DSC–MS of NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo precursors 3.1.4 SEM

The SEM photographs of NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo

manifested that the interaction among binary promoter precursors were shown in Fig. 4. The three precursors
trimetallic NiCoMo precursor distinguished from that of synthesized by the chemical precipitation reaction exhib-
the bimetallic NiMo and CoMo precursors. Furthermore, ited different morphology. The cluster of NiMo precursor
the endothermic peak at 333 °C of NiCoMo precursor was stacked disorderly and unsystematic, and the morphology

123
Novel Binary Promoter NiCoMo Layered Molybdate Catalyst
Table 1 BET results of the unsupported catalysts
Catalyst BET specific Pore volume Pore size
surface (m2 g-1) (cm3 g-1) (nm)
NiMo 114 0.19 6.0
CoMo 113 0.23 6.6
NiCoMo 104 0.17 6.6
of the CoMo precursor exhibited the accumulation of
lamella, but as to NiCoMo precursor, the morphology
turned to the agglomeration of small particles.
3.2 Characterization and Evaluation of Unsupported
Catalyst
3.2.1 N2 Physisorption
The BET specific surface, pore volume and pore size of
NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo catalysts deriving from the
respective precursors were shown in Table 1. The unsup-
ported NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo catalysts displayed
surface area in the range of 104–114 m2 g-1, and differ-
ences of pore structure could also be found in the NiMo,
CoMo and NiCoMo catalysts in Table 1. At the same time,
CoMo unsupported catalyst exhibited higher pore volume
(0.23 cm3 g-1) than that of NiCoMo catalyst, which was
only 0.17 cm3 g-1, and the pore size of these three cata-
lysts were in the range of 6.0–6.6 nm, which might provide
suitable access for reactants.
3.2.2 XRD
The sulfurized NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo catalysts were
characterized by XRD, and the results were presented in
Fig. 5. The phase of MoS2 (PDF card No. 89-5112) was
detected in NiMo and NiCoMo catalysts except CoMo
catalyst, but in the NiCoMo catalyst, there exhibited poorly
crystalline phase of MoS2, especially when the character-
istic degree of 2h was 14.4°, which was inclined to be
approximately amorphous phase, and the highly dispersed
MoS2 played effective role in HDS reactions [18]. Ni3S2
(PDF card No. 044-1418) and Co9S8 (PDF card No.
065-6801) were detected in NiMo and CoMo catalyst,
respectively, and both of these phases were confirmed by
XRD in binary promoter NiCoMo catalyst. The charac-
teristic peaks of Co9S8 phase were detected at 2h of 29.8°
and 52.1° in CoMo catalyst, and the characteristic peak of
Ni3S2 phase was confirmed at 2h of 31.1° in NiMo catalyst,
which were also detected in NiCoMo catalyst with differ-
ent intensities. At the same time, the characteristic peaks of
MoS2 and Co9S8, Ni3S2 and Co9S8, were overlapped at
about 47° and 30°, respectively.
289
Fig. 5 XRD patterns of sulfurized NiMo, CoMo and NiCoMo
catalysts
3.2.3 HRTEM
The HRTEM photographs of sulfurized NiMo, CoMo and
NiCoMo catalysts were exhibited in Fig. 6. The black
thread-like fringes corresponding to typical stacking MoS2
slabs were observed in all sulfurized catalysts, which had a
interplanar distance of about 0.61 nm, and this was attrib-
uted to the characteristic of the (002) basal planes of the
crystalline MoS2. It could also be found that some smaller
fringes were detected in sulfided catalysts, especially in
NiMo and CoMo catalysts. These fringes had a spacing of
about 0.29 nm that was probably the characteristic of the
crystalline sulfurized nickel or cobalt containing species
[14], which was in accordance with the foregoing sulfurized
XRD results. However, there existed significant differences
in HRTEM photographs of these catalysts. It could be found
that for sulfurized NiMo catalyst, the aggregated Ni3S2
were covered with stacking MoS2 slabs, and as to CoMo
catalyst, the disordered MoS2 slabs placed around Co9S8,
which might not be suitable for the synergetic effects of
promoters in these cases [19, 20], while there existed
obviously overlapping between MoS2 and sulfurized Ni or
Co containing species in NiCoMo catalyst.
3.2.4 Catalytic Results
A model fuel containing 2 wt% DBT in petroleum ether
was used to investigate the HDS activities for NiMo,
CoMo, and NiCoMo catalysts. Table 2 shows the distri-
butions of products after HDS reactions. The HYD/DDS
ratios of the three catalysts were calculated and also
shown in Table 2. Three Mo-based catalysts deriving from
layered molybdate could efficiently convert DBT into
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290
Fig. 6 HRTEM photographs of sulfurized NiMo, CoMo and Ni-
CoMo catalysts
hydrocarbons, especially the binary promoter NiCoMo
catalyst, with the conversion of DBT reaching 99.7 % and
trace amount of partially hydrogenated DBTs (4H-DBT
(tetrahydrodibenzothiophene) and 6H-DBT (hexahy-
drodibenzothiophene)) detected. It is of great interest to
note that the HYD/DDS ratios for the three catalysts
123
C. Yin et al.
Table 2 Products distribution of DBT catalytic reactions
NiMo CoMo NiCoMo
DBT 26.5 25.6 0.3
4H-DBT 1.4 1.1 Tracea
6H-DBT 0.3 0.2 Trace
BP 23.8 28.0 39.8
CHB 43.6 40.5 57.2
BCH 4.4 4.6 2.7
HYD/DDSb 2.02 1.61 1.51
DBT dibenzothiophene, 4H-DBT tetrahydrodibenzothiophene, 6H-
DBT hexahydrodibenzothiophene, BP biphenyl, CHB cyclohexyl-
benzene, BCH bicyclohexane
a
Trace: amount of product is less than 0.01 wt%
b
HYD/DDS: the ratio of hydrogenation products (BCH and CHB)
and direct desulfurization product (BP)
decreases in the order of NiMo, CoMo, and NiCoMo, from
2.02 dropping to 1.61, and last 1.51.
Properties of the straight-run gas oil used in this work
were shown in Table 3, and GC–PFPD chromatography of
the hydrotreated gas oil was exhibited in Fig. 7. It was
obvious that the feed had high sulfur with 12,180 ppm S,
while after HDS reactions, the sulfur content dropped by
more than 99.9 % to 7.5 ppm on NiCoMo catalyst. The
reference NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst exhibited relatively lower
HDS activity, and the sulfur content in hydrotreated gas oil
was 135 ppm after HDS reactions.
There exist extensive open literature covering the effects
of Ni and Co promoter or non-promoter on Mo/Al2O3
catalysts [18, 21–23]. It is generally accepted that the
catalytic active sites are the molybdenum atoms at the
edges and corners of the MoS2 crystallites for Mo/Al2O3
catalysts, which have at least one sulfur vacancy. The
introduction of Co to Mo-based catalysts enhances the
direct extraction of sulfur atoms from the DBT molecule
[23]. It is assumed that Co sulfide desulfurizes by
extracting sulfur atoms directly from the sulfur-containing
molecules, perhaps due to its electronegativity higher than
that of the Mo atom [23]. And the introduction of Ni
species are supposed to contribute to the improved HDS
activity mainly due to the accelerating hydrogenation of a
phenyl ring in DBT [18]. Through theoretical calculation,
Chianelli and co-workers [24] drawed the conclusion that
Ni or Co donated electrons to Mo so as to enhance the HDS
activity, which involved an electron transfer from a Co–S
or Ni–S antibonding orbital to a Mo–S antibonding orbital.
Furthermore density-function theory (DFT) calculations
showed that the most stable position for the promoter atom
(Co or Ni) was at the edge, from which it substituted the
molybdenum atom and formed the so-called ‘‘Co–Mo–S’’
or ‘‘Ni–Mo–S’’ phase [15, 21]. More recently, Lauritsen
et al. [21] found a distinct tendency for promoter Co or Ni
Novel Binary Promoter NiCoMo Layered Molybdate Catalyst 291

Table 3 Properties of the feed gas oil

Items q (g/ml) S (ppm) Boiling range (°C)

Properties 0.8485 12,180 IBP 5 10 30 50 70 90 95

125 210 241 280 299 317 346 353
IBP initial boiling point

XRD characterizations of the sulfurized catalysts indicated

that there existed characteristic peaks of MoS2, Ni3S2 and
Co9S8 in NiCoMo catalyst. It could be seen that from
HRTEM photographs of NiCoMo catalyst, Ni3S2 and
Co9S8 were overlapped or mingled with MoS2, and this
might promote the formation of so-called ‘‘NiMoS phase’’
or ‘‘CoMoS phase’’ [2, 3, 15, 21], which were shown to be
catalytically active in HDS reactions [21, 22, 25, 26]. The
selective substitutions of Ni or Co on Mo-based sulfides
have great influence on catalytic activity. The aggregated
Ni3S2 phase covered with stacking MoS2 slabs in NiMo
Fig. 7 GC–PFPD chromatography of sulfur distributions in hydro- catalyst or the disordered MoS2 slabs placed around the
treated gas oil aggregated Co9S8 phase detected in CoMo catalyst tend to
exhibit poor HDS activity towards DBT, while the Ni3S2
and Co9S8 overlapped or mingled with MoS2 has been
to substitute Mo atoms at edge sites of single-layer MoS2
testified to show efficient HDS activity, which could be
nanoclusters with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).
promising catalysts for deep HDS reactions.
For Co promoted MoS2, the introduction of Co induced an
almost hexagonal morphology, which was driven by the
tendency for Co to be located only at Co–Mo–S (1010)
4 Conclusion
edge sites. When refers to Ni promoted MoS2, the mor-
phology and affinity for Ni to substitute Mo depended on
The binary promoter layered molybdate NiCoMo precur-
the cluster size, when larger Ni–Mo–S particles (named
sor, endowed with structure of (NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2,
type A Ni–Mo–S) exhibited a truncated triangular shape,
were synthesized by chemical precipitation with NiMo and
and the smaller particles (named type B Ni–Mo–S)
CoMo precursors as comparison. TG–DSC–MS curves of
depicted the dodecagonal shape [21].
the NiCoMo precursor implied that there existed various
However, few published paper covered the binary pro-
interactions among the active compound from NiMo and
moter Mo-based HDS catalysts. In this paper, NiMo, CoMo
CoMo precursors. Catalytic reactions of DBT revealed that
and NiCoMo layered molybdate endowed with the struc-
the NiCoMo catalyst exhibited distinctly higher activity
ture of (NH4)HNi2(OH)2(MoO4)2 were synthesized, and
than NiMo and CoMo catalysts. The NiCoMo catalyst was
TG–DSC–MS characterization demonstrated that there
also efficient in the HDS of gas oil with high sulfur content,
existed distinguished difference among these precursors,
and it could drop the sulfur content from 12,180 to
for the decomposition of the layered molybdate and the
7.5 ppm, quite lower than that on reference NiMo/Al2O3
release of NH3 and H2O for NiCoMo precursor took place
catalyst, which was 135 ppm after HDS reaction. From
step by step, while the others exhibited only one endo-
HRTEM photographs, the Ni3S2 and Co9S8 phases were
thermic peak in DSC–MS patterns, which might be
overlapped or mingled with MoS2 in NiCoMo catalyst,
attributed to the various interaction among the precursors
which would promote the formation of so-called ‘‘CoMoS
and have potential effect on HDS reactions. DBT catalytic
phase’’ or ‘‘NiMoS phase’’ and perform intrinsic catalytic
reactions indicated that the binary promoter NiCoMo cat-
activity. The binary promoter NiCoMo catalyst driving
alyst exhibited higher catalytic activity and lower ability of
from NiCoMo layered molybdate needs in-depth further
hydrogenation than other two catalysts with the conversion
research and could be a very promising catalyst for the
of DBT reaching 99.7 % and HYD/DDS at 1.51, and
production of ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel).
straight-run gas oil evaluation results showed that the Ni-
CoMo catalyst exhibited enormously higher activity than Acknowledgments This work was financially supported by the
reference NiMo/Al2O3 catalyst with sulfur content drop- National Key Fundamental Research Development Project of China
ping from 12,180 to 7.5 and 135 ppm, respectively. The (973 Project No. 2010CB226905) and the Fundamental Research

123
292
Funds for the Central Universities (14CX06032A). Financial support
from PetroChina Corporation Limited is also greatly appreciated.
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