Seven different catalyst formulations were prepared with varying levels of nickel, palladium and rhodium loading, as shown in Table 1. The catalysts were designated based on the active metals and impregnation procedure. For example, catalyst Ni-Pd/b refers to a catalyst that contains Ni and Pd as active metals with sequential impregnation where Ni was impregnated first followed by Pd. ‘b’ in the catalyst name refers to the support -Al2O3. The catalysts were prepared using parameters (catalyst precursor and calcination temperature), which were developed previously in our laboratory for the present application. These compositions were used to allow experimental analysis of used catalysts; there was no attempt to optimize formulations since our goal in the current work was to understand the role of sulfur in catalyst deactivation, rather than to optimize a specific sulfur-tolerant catalyst formulation (Table 2).