| abstract |
Hydrocarbon feeds are upgraded by contacting a feed, at elevated temperature and in the presence of hydrogen, with a catalyst comprising an amorphous sulfide of iron and a metal selected from the group consisting of Mo, W and mixture thereof. The catalysts are prepared by heating one or more catalyst precursor salts under oxygen-free conditions in the presence of sulfur at a temperature of at least about 250 DEG C. The precursor salts will contain a thiometallate anion of Mo, W or mixture thereof and a cation comprising iron as a promoter metal and, optionally, additional divalent promoter metals, wherein said promoter metal or metals are chelated by at least one neutral, nitrogen-containing polydentate ligand and wherein said additional promoter metal is selected from the group consisting of Ni, Co, Mn, Zn, Cu and mixture thereof. |