Synthesis of boron modified CoMo/Al2O3 catalyst under different heating methods and its gasoline hydrodesulfurization performance

Catalytic hydrodesulfurization (HDS) technique is widely used for clean gasoline production. However, traditional HDS catalyst (CoMo/γ-Al2O3) exhibits high hydrogenation performance of olefins (HYDO), resulting in the loss of gasoline octane number. To achieve high HDS/HYDO ratio, the key issue is to reduce the interaction between active metals and the support, therefore, in this research, the modified CoMo/γ-Al2O3 catalysts with various boron amounts were investigated under traditional or microwave heating. The effects of preparing methods as well as boron amounts on the active phase, acidic properties and HDS catalytic activities were examined. Results show that the modification, especially under microwave treatment, can significantly weaken the interaction between the active component and the support by enlarging the surface area and pore diameter, and reducing the acidity of the support. As a result, the stacking numbers of MoS2 slabs were obviously improved by the modification and microwave treatment, contributing to higher edge/ rim ratio, and resulting in higher HDS performance and selectivity to olefin.