influence of fuel type on ultrasonic-assisted combustion synthesis of nimo/ al2o3 catalyst for hydrodesulfurization of thiophene

Various organic fuels, including citric acid, ethylene glycol, glycine and urea, were used to synthesize alumina-supported nimo catalysts via the solution combustion method and applied in thiophene hydrodesulfurization at atmospheric pressure. the as-synthesized catalysts were characterized by x-ray diffraction (xrd), thermogravimetric analysis (tga), field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (edx), nitrogen adsorption/desorption, and temperature program reduction (tpr). the results showed that the type of organic fuel has a considerable effect on the phase structure, surface morphology and reducibility potential due to the different amounts of heat and gaseous products released during the combustion reaction. also, a relatively homogeneous distribution of the metals over support was obtained in all samples. the highest activity was obtained over a sample synthesized with citric acid as fuel due to its significant proper-ties, such as high surface area, considerable surface pore structure, and weakened metal-support interaction, compared with other fuel additives. activity assessment of the prepared catalyst by ethylene glycol and glycine demonstrated that 100% abatement of thiophene was achieved at 105 °c and 30 min.