Study of benzene hydrogenation catalyzed by nickel supported on alumina in a fixed bed reactor

The Ni/Al₂O₃ catalysts were prepared for studying benzene hydrogenation. It was observed that the activity for Ni loading under 5% is very low due to the formation of nickel aluminate (spinel) in low nickel loading. It has been found that Ni/Al₂O₃ systems exhibit SMSI (strong-metal support interaction) to a much lesser extent. It could be concluded that the hydrogenation of benzene on supported Ni catalysts is a structure insensitive reaction.