DescriptionSupported catalysts are widely used in the chemical industry due to their (1) high surface area, (2) decreased requirement of expensive active components and (3) high mechanical and thermal stability. Many factories use belt conveyors to dry the supported catalysts after the impregnation. Although the belt drying technology has been developed for many years, the method of controlling the product is mainly trial and error. This can potentially waste a lot of energy and materials when optimizing the product quality. Therefore, it is important to study the behavior of the drying process and its effect on product characteristics. In this thesis, a novel method is introduced using a packed bed dryer to mimic the belt drying process. A Nickel/Alumina catalyst was studied in both one-heating zone and multi-heating zone systems. BET and micro-XRF were used to measure the catalyst pore structure and the metal distribution after drying, respectively. A pronounced egg-shell metal distribution was found in the one-heating zone system. Moderate egg-shell metal distributions were found in two-heating zone system due to the effect of melting point depression and film breakage during the drying process.