Hydroconversion of methyl laurate over silica-supported Ni–Mo catalysts with different Ni sizes

In this study, silica-supported Ni–Mo catalysts were prepared by co-loading Ni and Mo species on silica materials with different specific surface areas to investigate the effects of the supporting material's surface area on the physicochemical properties of the loaded metal species and the catalytic performance in the hydroconversion of methyl laurate. Notably, supporting materials with higher specific surface areas enabled the metal species to be highly dispersed to produce smaller metallic Ni crystallites, resulting in the formation of smaller metal particles consisting of Ni and Mo species. Moreover, in the hydroconversion of methyl laurate, all silica-supported Ni–Mo catalysts predominantly produced n-undecane followed by n-dodecane. In addition, the decrease in Ni crystallite size increased the number of active sites, thereby improving the catalytic activity in the hydroconversion of methyl laurate to hydrocarbons. In contrast, the product distribution was less sensitive to the Ni crystallite and metal particle sizes, suggesting that the reaction paths over the silica-supported Ni–Mo catalysts were only slightly sensitive to the morphology of the metal particles that served as active sites.