Bifunctional molybdenum oxide/acid catalysts for hydroisomerization of n-heptane

Numerus research studies focus on replacing scarce noble metals by non-noble transition metals in solid catalysts. The (de)hydrogenation function in bifunctional catalysts for hydroisomerization and hydrocracking of alkanes is usually performed by a precious metal such as Pt, or a metal sulfide such as MoS₂. In this study, we investigated the possibility of replacing Pt with a non-sulfided MoO_x catalyst in combination with a mesoporous solid acid for the hydroisomerization of n-heptane. MoO_x particles size as well as the preparation techniques were varied in order to identify the Mo active phase for (de)hydrogenation. We demonstrated that an optimized non-precious metal MoO_x catalyst can perform similarly to its Pt counterpart in the n-heptane conversion when used in combination with a mesoporous solid acid.