High activity hydrotreating catalysts and processes using the same

A process for hydrotreating a hydrocarbon feedstock, comprising:

• contacting the feedstock with a hydrotreating catalyst under hydrotreating conditions to produce a hydrotreated effluent, wherein the hydrotreating catalyst comprises a catalyst precursor comprising:
• (a) catalytically active metal-organic complex deposited in or an inorganic catalyst support, the support comprising a porous inorganic refractory selected from the group consisting of silica, alumina, alumina-silica, and crystalline silica-alumina, said metal-organic component partially oxidized for a time of from 1 minute to 1 hour at a temperature of 350° C. to 500° C.;
• wherein (a) exhibits:
• (i) a loss-on-ignition of greater than 1 wt. % and up to 10 wt. %;
• and
• (ii) a carbon-as-carboxy to total residual carbon ratio (Ccarboxy/Ctotal) of from 0.10 to 0.19 as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy;
• wherein loss-on-ignition is determined using a test conducted by heating a sample of the partially oxidized catalyst precursor in an oxygen-containing atmosphere for 1 hour @ 1020° F. (549° C.) and measuring weight loss after such heating;
• wherein the metal portion of the partially oxidized metal organic component comprises at least one Group VIB metal and at least one Group VII metal and wherein the organic portion of the metal-organic component, prior to partial oxidation, is a hydroxycarboxylic acid selected from the group consisting of glycolic acid, lactic acid, glyceric acid, gluconic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, mucic acid, and citric acid.