Hydroprocessing catalyst prepared with waste catalyst fines and its use

1. A method of making a catalyst composition, wherein said method comprises:

forming a shaped support comprising an inorganic oxide powder and catalyst fines, wherein said catalyst fines are present in said shaped support in an amount in the range up to 50 wt % of said shaped support, wherein the fraction of the total pore volume of the shaped support that is contained in macropores exceeds 10%, and wherein said shaped support is dried and calcined;

incorporating a chelating agent and a metal-containing solution into said shaped support to provide a chelant treated metal-incorporated support;

drying said chelant treated metal-incorporated support so as to provide a dried chelant treated metal-incorporated support having a volatiles content in the range of from 1 to 20 wt % LOI thereby creating an available pore volume;

incorporating a polar additive into said dried chelant treated metal-incorporated support in an amount such that at least 75% of the available pore volume of said dried chelant treated metal-incorporated support is filled with said polar additive, to thereby provide an additive impregnated composition.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said dried chelate treated metal-incorporated support has a volatiles content in the range of from 3 to 15 wt % LOI into which said polar additive is incorporated to provide said additive impregnated composition.

3. A method as recited in claim 2 , wherein said step of drying said-chelate treated metal-incorporated support is conducted at a drying temperature not to exceed 400° C.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said chelating agent is incorporated into said shaped support either prior to the incorporation of said metal-containing solution into said shaped support or in combination with or as a component of said metal-containing solution.

5. A method as recited in claim 4 , wherein said chelating agent is incorporated into said shaped support, prior to the incorporation of said metal-containing solution into said shaped support, and thereafter drying said shaped support with said chelating agent incorporated therein to provide said shaped support with said chelating agent and having a volatiles content in the range of from 1 to 20 wt % LOI.

6. A method as recited in claim 5 , wherein said step of drying said metal-incorporated support is conducted at a first drying temperature not to exceed 400° C., and said step of drying said shaped support with said chelating agent incorporated therein is conducted at a second drying temperature not to exceed 400° C.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said chelating agent is selected from the group of compounds consisting of aminocarboxylic acids, polyamines, aminoalcohols, oximes, and polyethyleneimines.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said polar additive is a heterocompound having polarity and a dipole moment of at least 0.45.

9. A method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the shaped support containing said catalyst fines has a pore structure such that at least 20% of its total pore volume is contained in macropores.

10. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said additive impregnated composition comprises a Group 9 or Group 10 metal component selected from the group consisting of cobalt and nickel present in an amount in the range of from 0.5 wt. % to 20 wt. %, and a Group 6 metal component selected from the group consisting of molybdenum and tungsten present in an amount in the range of from 5 wt. % to 50 wt. %, wherein the weight percents are based on the weight of the dry support material with the metal component as the element regardless of its actual form.

11. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein said shaped support comprises a porous refractory oxide selected from the group of refractory oxides consisting of silica, alumina, titania, zirconia, silica-alumina, silica-titania, silica-zirconia, titania-alumina, zirconia-alumina, silica-titania and combinations of two or more thereof; and wherein said shaped support has a surface area (as determined by the BET method) in the range of from 50 m 2 /g to 450 m 2 /g, a mean pore diameter in the range of from 50 to 200 angstroms (Å), and a total pore volume exceeding 0.55 cc/g.

12. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein at least 80% of the available pore volume of said dried chelant treated metal-incorporated support is filled with said polar additive.

13. A method as recited in claim 12 , wherein the polar additive is dimethyl formamide and at least 90% of the available pore volume of said dried metal-incorporated support is filled with said polar additive.

14. A method as recited in claim 12 , wherein the polar additive is a mixture of dimethyl formamide and hexadecylamine.

15. A method as recited in claim 14 wherein the chelating agent is diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid.

16. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the shaped support containing said catalyst fines has a pore structure such that at least 15% of its total pore volume is contained in macropores.