Hydrodesulfurization reactivities of various sulfur compounds in vacuum gas oil

The hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of a vacuum gas oil (VGO) was performed at 360 degrees C (6.9 MPa) over a commercial NiMo catalyst to examine the HDS reactivities of various sulfur compounds which exist in the VGO by means of quantitative pseudo-first-order kinetic analysis. Four representative types of aromatic-skeleton sulfur compounds were observed in the VGO: alkylbenzothiophenes (BTs), alkyldibenzothiophenes (DBTs), alkylphenanthro[4,5-b,c,d]thiophenes (PTs), and alkylbenzonaphthothiophenes (BNTs). Among these, alkyl-BTs exhibited the highest HDS reactivity, whereas alkyl-DBTs with alkyl substituents at the 4 and/or 6 positions appeared to have the least reactivity even though their aromatic-skeleton is smaller than those of both alkyl-PTs and -BNTs. Steric hindrance of alkyl groups at specific positions appears to be a major reason for the low reactivity. Quantum chemical calculations on representative sulfur compounds were carried out to compare molecular parameters with their different HDS reactivities.