Hydrocarbon activation isobutane

The Phillips Steam Active Reforming (STAR) process catalyticaHy converts isobutane to isobutylene. The reaction is carried out with steam in tubes that are packed with catalyst and located in a furnace. The catalyst is a soHd, particulate noble metal. The presence of steam diluent reduces the partial pressure of the hydrocarbons and hydrogen present, thus shifting the equHibrium conditions for this system toward greater conversions. 

A variety of solid acids besides zeolites have been tested as alkylation catalysts. Sulfated zirconia and related materials have drawn considerable attention because of what was initially thought to be their superacidic nature and their well-demonstrated ability to isomerize short linear alkanes at temperatures below 423 K. Corma et al. (188) compared sulfated zirconia and zeolite BEA at reaction temperatures of 273 and 323 K in isobutane/2-butene alkylation. While BEA catalyzed mainly dimerization at 273 K, the sulfated zirconia exhibited a high selectivity to TMPs. At 323 K, on the other hand, zeolite BEA produced more TMPs than sulfated zirconia, which under these conditions produced mainly cracked products with 65 wt% selectivity. The TMP/DMH ratio was always higher for the sulfated zirconia sample. These distinctive differences in the product distribution were attributed to the much stronger acid sites in sulfated zirconia than in zeolite BEA, but today one would question this suggestion because of evidence that the sulfated zirconia catalyst is not strongly acidic, being active for alkane isomerization because of a combination of acidic character and redox properties that help initiate hydrocarbon conversions (189). The time-on-stream behavior was more favorable for BEA, which deactivated at a lower rate than sulfated zirconia. Whether differences in the adsorption of the feed and product molecules influenced the performance was not discussed. 

The catalyst can be treated with a solvent to extract hydrocarbon deposits. The most straightforward solvent to use is isobutane, which has been shown to restore catalytic activity only partially. Supercritical solvents have been tested, but they also lead to only partial restoration of the activity. Supercritical alkylation to remove the deposits in situ has been shown in Section III.D.l to be less effective. It is unlikely that this method of operation will lead to a competitive process. 

More recently phosphorus-containing zeolites developed by Union Carbide (alu-minophosphates, silicoaluminophosphates) were shown to be equally effective in methanol condensation.439-444 ZSM-5 was also shown to exhibit high activity and selectivity in the transformation of Fischer-Tropsch oxygenates to ethylene and propylene in high yields.445 Silicalite impregnated with transition-metal oxides, in turn, is selective in the production of C4 hydrocarbons (15-50% isobutane and 8-15% isobutylene).446... 

In zeolites, this barrier is even higher. As discussed in Section II.B, the lower acid strength and the interaction between the zeolitic oxygen atoms and the hydrocarbon fragments lead to the formation of alkoxides rather than carbenium ions. Thus, extra energy is needed to transform these esters into carbonium ionlike transition states. Quantum-chemical calculations of hydride transfer between C2-C4 adsorbed alkenes and free alkanes on clusters representing zeolitic acid sites led to activation energies of approximately 200 kJ/mol for isobutane/tert-butoxide (29), 230-305 kJ/mol for propane/sec-propoxide, and 240 kJ/mol for isobutane/tert-butoxide (32), 130-150 kJ/mol for ethane/ethene (63), 95-105 kJ/mol for propane/propene, 88-109 kJ/mol for isobutane/isobutylene, and... 

The most striking product result is the extensive formation of propane over very active catalysts. Venuto et al. (99) reported analogously that dealkylation of rf-butylbenzene over rare earth-exchanged X zeolite at 260° gave isobutane as the major gaseous product. Such paraffin formation is presumably the result of hydride transfer reactions to the car-bonium ions formed by initial electrophilic cleavage of the alkylbenzene 100) or by protonation of the olefin. Reasonable hydride donors are cumene and propylene the resultant hydrogen-deficient species are then precursors of residue formation (32, 89). Parafiin formation by treatment of alkylbenzenes with aluminum halides in the presence of cyclohexane or decalin has been known for 30 years 47), and there is ample evidence for hydride transfer between carbonium ions and hydrocarbons 10, 22, 27,53). 

After activation, the catalyst is intrcxiuced into the polymerization reactor as slurry in a saturated hydrocarbon such as isobutane. The precise mechanism of initiation is not known, but is believed to involve oxidation-reduction reactions between ethylene and chromium, resulting in formation of chromium (II) which is the precursor for the active center. Polymerization is initially slow, possibly because oxidation products coordinate with (and block) active centers. Consequently, standard Phillips catalysts typically exhibit an induction period. The typical kinetic profile for a Phillips catalyst is shown in curve C of Figure 3.1. If the catalyst is pre-reduced by carbon monoxide, the induction period is not observed. Unlike Ziegler-Natta and most single site catalysts, no cocatalyst is required for standard Phillips catalysts. Molecular weight distribution of the polymer is broad because of the variety of active centers. 

The dynamics of methane, propane, isobutane, neopentane and acetylene transport was studied in zeolites H-ZSM-5 and Na-X by the batch frequency response (FR) method. In the applied temperature range of 273-473 K no catalytic conversion of the hydrocarbons occurred. Texturally homogeneous zeolite samples of close to uniform particle shape and size were used. The rate of diffusion in the zeolitic micropores determined the transport rate of alkanes. In contrast, acetylene is a suitable sorptive for probing the acid sites. The diffusion coefficients and the activation energy of isobutane diffusion in H-ZSM-5 were determined. 

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