Aromatic hydrogenation over hybrid zeolite-supported catalyst with sulfur tolerance by shape selective exclusion of sulfur compound

Noble metal catalysts have been suggested for the low-temperature aromatic hydrogenation of distillate fuels for ultra clean and low aromatic diesel fuels, but sulfur poisoning still remains the biggest problem. In this study, hybrid catalyst was prepared to investigate the effectiveness of shape selective noble metal catalyst by mixing two zeolites-supported palladium catalysts. By using two zeolite supports having different pore opening sizes, zeolite Y and A, hybrid catalyst had two different functions, hydrogenation in large pore system and hydrogen spillover in small pore system. Pd clusters on the external surface of Zeolite A supported Pd catalysts were passivated by CVD with TEOS to investigate the effect of the catalytic reaction inside the pore of catalyst. It was found that zeolite A supported Pd catalyst did not show any significant catalytic activity for hydrogenation, but helped zeolite Y supported Pd catalyst maintain high hydrogenation conversion by hydrogen spillover.