Roland Weindl

PhD Student

Catalysis Research Center and Chemistry Department

Technische Universität München

Lichtenbergstraße 4 85747 Garching, Germany

Curriculum

Research

Since the beginning of the last century, transition metal sulfides (TMS) are known as suitable catalyst systems for a broad variety of hydrogenation reactions. Industrially most important is their application as hydrotreating catalysts in refineries. During this process, crude oil is upgraded by removing metals, sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics. The content of these compounds has to be decreased for environmental reasons on the one hand and to prevent catalyst poisoning downstream on the other hand. Commercial hydrotreating catalysts consist of Mo/W sulfide phases promoted with Ni/Co either as bulk catalysts or supported. In most cases, alumina is used as support due to its low cost, high thermal stability and good processability. Nevertheless, other supports have also drawn some interest. In contrast to conventional alumina or silica supports, zeolites can provide acidity and a well-defined structural environment for the TMS phases. The resulting bifunctional catalyst systems show enhanced hydrogenation activity and additionally, they are able to convert sterically hindered molecules by hydrocracking or isomerization. Therefore, this study focuses on the synthesis of zeolite supported TMS catalysts, their characterization and their activity in hydrogenation reactions.

Publications

[1] R. Weindl, R. Khare, L. Kovarik, A. Jentys, K. Reuter, H. Shi, J. A. Lercher, Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2021, 60, 9301-9305.