Effect of Pore Structure on the Performance of Mo-Ni Catalysts for Petroleum Resin Hydrogenation

The modification of petroleum resin (PR) by catalytic hydrogenation is an upgrading technology for producing high-value-added hydrogenated petroleum resin (HPR) from of pyrolysis petroleum by-product. This research employed alumina supports with different pore size distributions to prepare supported Mo-Ni type catalysts and investigated their catalytic hydrogenation performance on C₉ petroleum resin. Catalysts prepared with bimodal pore alumina (BPA) supports effectively overcome the limitations of internal diffusion and increase the quantity of active sites, thus increasing the catalytic activity for hydrogenation. The experimental results demonstrated that MoNi/BPA achieved a hydrogenation degree of 99.94% for HC₉PR, with the hydrogenated product having a Pt–Co colour of 2.37 Hazen. After 140 h of reaction, the hydrogenation degree of HC₉PR remained at 96.51%, and the Pt–Co colour value was lower than 40 Hazen. This investigation confirms that solving the mass transfer issues of petroleum resin molecules in the pores of supported catalysts is key to designing efficient hydrogenation catalysts for petroleum resin.

Graphical Abstract