A bimetallic nickel-molybdenum catalyst supported on γ-alumina was synthesized by the two-step incipient wetness impregnation technique. The activity of the prepared Ni-Mo/γ-alumina catalyst was evaluated in a down flow fixed-bed microreactor. In this way, hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) reactions of the main distillate fractions of crude oil were assessed. XRD, SEM, TPR, ICP-OES, BET-BJH and nitrogen adsorption/desorption methods were used for characterizing the synthesized Ni-Mo/γ-alumina catalyst. The active metals with Ni/Mo mass ratio of 0.23 and total metal of 13.7 wt% were loaded on the support, similar to the commercial industrial catalyst. The performance tests were conducted at 3.0 MPa (for light naphtha and heavy naphtha) and at 4.5 MPa (for kerosene and gas oil). The results revealed that the total sulfur conversion of the light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosene and gas oil fractions was 98.3%, 95%, 91.7% and 90.1% (after 24 h), respectively.

Reducing sulfur and nitrogen compounds is essential in producing clean fuels for providing a green environment. In this regard, a novel nanocatalyst has been proposed for Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and Hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of heavy naphtha. To this end, Ni-Mo was loaded on nanoporous graphene (Ni-Mo/NG) through the incipient wetness impregnation method. The synthesized nanocatalyst was characterized by FE-SEM, ICP, BET, FTIR, XRD and TPR methods. The catalytic activity of the Ni-Mo/NG catalyst was evaluated at 290 o C and 30 bar. For the synthesized Ni-Mo/NG catalyst, conversions of total sulfur, total nitrogen and R-SH compounds (mercaptans) were obtained as 99.5, 99.4 and 99.3%, respectively, which shows considerable enhancement in comparison to the Ni-Mo/γ-Alumina industrial catalyst.

In this research, to remove sulfur and nitrogen compounds from heavy naphtha, various nanocatalysts were prepared through supporting NiMo over nanoporous graphene and evaluated in hydrodesulfurization and hydrodenitrogenation reactions. The nanoporous graphene was initially functionalized in order to facilitate the metal being loaded on it. Three different methods were used to functionalize the nanoporous graphene. The NiMo/nanoporous graphene nanocatalysts were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, temperature-programmed reduction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Catalyst performance was evaluated in terms of conversions of sulfur, mercaptans (R-SH) and nitrogen compounds. It was found that the functionalized nanoporous graphene support could significantly enhance the catalytic performance in comparison with the industrial NiMo/alumina catalyst. Among the functionalized graphene supports, amine-functionalized graphene exhibited the best results. By using NiMo supported over amine-functionalized graphene, the conversions of total sulfur and R-SH reached 97.8% and 98.1%, respectively.