(6bu) Heterogeneous Catalysts Development for Benzene Saturation in Diesel

Teaching Interests: Chemical Engineering

A faster growth in the demand for diesel fuels relative to gasoline, together with increasing quality requirements and availability of poorer grade raw materials, has created a need for improved dearomatization processes. An improved knowledge of chemical reactions, kinetic models, and rigorous reactor models is essential to new dearomatization process development and optimization. The major drawback of conventional hydrotreating catalysts includes severe operating conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, low space velocity, and need for excessive hydrogen to feed mole ratios to achieve acceptable aromatic reduction. Therefore, noble-metal based catalysts are preferred for aromatic saturation since they can operate at lower thermochemical severities, thus avoiding the thermodynamic constraints. This work investigated the hydrogenation of benzene using several meso-structured silica supported (HMS, SBA-15, MCM-41) platinum and palladium catalysts in an up-flow catalytic fixed bed reactor. Supports and catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, CO chemisorption techniques and the highest conversion of benzene to cyclohexane was observed 100% for SBA-15 supported Pt-Pd catalyst, 95% for HMS supported Pt-Pd catalyst and 85% for MCM-41 supported Pt-Pd catalyst.