Hydrocracking catalyst made of NiMo sulfide loaded on a modified HEMT zeolite

Treating a NH4EMT zeolite with a solution of (NH4)(2)SiF6 at 80 degrees C a ffords a solid containing amorphous SiO2 intimately mixed with the zeolite. This acidic support EMT-Si was loaded with NiMo sulfide in order to prepar e a bifunctional catalyst, which was tested for the hydrogenation of benzen e and the hydrocracking of n-heptane, This NiMo/EMT-Si catalyst was found m ore active for hydrogenation than the analogous NiMo/HY. This is ascribed t o a higher dispersion of the NiMo sulfide, which is almost equally shared b etween the internal mesopores in the modified EMT solid, and the fissures, which were created throughout the zeolite grains upon inserting the NiMo su lfide. The catalyst with the EMT-Si support was also found more active than the NiMo/HY for the hydrocracking of heptane, with a slightly higher selec tivity into heptane isomers.