Abstract
Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), temperature-programmed sulfiding (TPS), and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of ammonia were applied to characterize six commercial hydroprocessing catalysts. In addition, their chemical composition, surface area, pore volume, and major crystalline phase were also determined. Catalysts that are reduced at lower temperature performed better in terms of hydrodesulfurization of benzothiophene. Hydrocracking of cumene was studied to evaluate the cracking ability of the catalysts. The cracking activity of the catalysts was very well correlated with the acidity. TPS patterns of the Mo containing catalysts were similar with each other. However, W containing catalyst showed a different sulfiding behavior. This approach can be utilized for the fast screening of commercial hydroprocessing catalysts and also for finding the best promising lab prepared catalysts.