Synthesis, characterization, and catalytic performance of NiMo catalysts supported on hierarchically porous Beta-KIT-6 material in the hydrodesulfurization of dibenzothiophene

Micro-mesoporous composite material Beta-KIT-6 (BK) with the BEA microporous structure and cubic Ia3d mesoporous structure was synthesized and used as catalyst support for the hydrodesulfurization of dibenzothiophene. The composite material possessed both KIT-6 and Beta structures. NiMo/BK had similar acidity as NiMo/Beta and possessed more acid sites and stronger acidity than NiMo/KIT-6 and NiMo/SBA-15. NiMo/BK showed the highest dibenzothiophene hydrodesulfurization activity among all the catalysts that were studied, and the dibenzothiophene conversion on NiMo/BK was about 2–3 times that of NiMo/Al2O3. The acidity of NiMo/BK enhanced the activity of the direct desulfurization pathway more significantly than that of the hydrogenation pathway. Cyclohexen-1-yl-benzene was detected as intermediate of the hydrogenation pathway. NiMo/KIT-6 exhibited higher activity than NiMo/SBA-15 due to the superior mass transfer ability of the cubic Ia3d mesoporous structure.