Desulfurization and sulfur tolerant hydrogenation processes of hydrocarbon feedstocks

An adsorbent for the liquid phase desulfurization of a sulfur-containing hydrocarbon feedstock wherein the adsorbent is an alloyed nanowire adsorbent prepared by:

• (a) providing a zinc oxide nanowire powder;
• (b) dispersing the nanowire in water to form a slurry;
• (c) providing a catalytically-active metal selected from nickel metal or copper metal or a combination thereof as an aqueous solution, wherein the catalytically-active metal may be provided in a precursor form;
• (d) adding the catalytically-active metal solution dropwise to the nanowire slurry while controlling the pH between 7.0-9.0;
• (e) drying the nanowire-active metal slurry of step (d) at a temperature of from about 80° C. to about 150° C. for a predetermined time period until a thick paste or powder forms:
• (f) calcining the powder in a furnace under inert atmosphere or at vacuum conditions at a calcination temperature of from about 180° C. to about 600° C. for a predetermined time period of from about 2 hr to about 8 hr;
• (g) cooling the reactor and calcined powder to ambient temperature;
• (h) adding water and from about 7 wt % to about 12 wt % binder to the calcined powder and mixing for form a paste;
• (i) extruding the paste of step (h) to form extrudates, from about 1 mm to about 4.2 mm cylinder size in diameter;
• and, (j) drying the extrudates in a vacuum oven at a temperature of from about 80° C. to about 200° C. for a predetermined time.