High-pressure liquid phase hydroconversion of heptane/nonane mixtures on Pt/H-Y zeolite catalyst

Joeri F.M. Denayer, Refik A. Ocakoglu, Ward Huybrechts, Bruno Dejonckheere, Pierre Jacobs, Sofia Calero, Rajamani Krishna, Berend Smit, Gino V. Baron, Johan A. Martens

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35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The competitive hydroconversion of heptane and nonane molecules in their mixture was studied in a continuous flow, fixed-bed reactor filled with Pt/HY zeolite catalyst. Liquid-phase reaction conditions were established at reaction temperatures of 230, 250, and 270°C by pressurizing the reactor at 100 bar. Hydrogen was supplied in an absorbed state with the liquid hydrocarbon feed. Under these liquid-phase reaction conditions, the apparent reaction rates of heptane and nonane were almost identical. In a similar experiment under vapor-phase conditions, nonane was much more reactive than heptane. The conversion data under liquid-phase conditions were analyzed with an adsorption-reaction model based on intrinsic kinetic parameters obtained from vapor-phase experiments. The model revealed that the enhanced reactivity of heptane in the liquid phase was due to its preferential adsorption. Simulation of the adsorption of the heptane/nonane mixture in the pores of zeolite Y with the configurational-bias Monte Carlo method confirmed the preferential adsorption of heptane in zeolite Y at high pressure. Under such conditions, in zeolite Y supercages the packing of the smaller heptane molecules is more favorable than that of the larger nonane molecules.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)66-73
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Catalysis
Volume220
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Nov 2003
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This research was financially supported by FWO Vlaanderen (G.0127.99). J. Denayer is grateful to the F.W.O.-Vlaanderen, for a fellowship as postdoctoral researcher. W.H. acknowledges the Flemish I.W.T. for a PhD fellowship. S.C., R.K., and B.S. thank the Netherlands Research Council for Chemical Sciences (CW) for partial support and the European Commission for a Marie Curie Individual Research Fellowship (to S.C.). The CHIS and COK teams participate in the IAP-PAI programme on Supramolecular Chemistry and Catalysis, sponsored by the Belgian government. The team from K.U. Leuven acknowledges the Flemish Government for a G.O.A. grant.

Keywords

  • Alkane mixtures
  • CBMC simulation
  • High pressure
  • Hydrocracking
  • Liquid phase
  • Molecular competition
  • Pt/HY zeolite

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