Hydrodenitrogenation

Hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) is an industrial process for the removal of nitrogen from petroleum. Organonitrogen compounds, even though they occur at low levels, are undesirable because they poisoning with downstream catalysts. Furthermore, upon combustion, organonitrogen compounds generate NOx, a pollutant. HDN is effected as general hydroprocessing, which traditionally focuses on hydrodesulfurization (HDS) because sulfur compounds are even more problematic. To some extent, hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is also effected.