Monofunctional Zeolite-based Reforming

The success of ZSM5 in Isomerisation,165 Methanol to Gasoline166 and Cyclar167 has prompted the investigation of the potential of metal-zeolite formulations in conventional, bifunctional reforming. To date this approach has had little success, possibly because the acidity in H-zeolites is too strong, permanent and inflexible for the conventional reforming case.168 

In essence the formulation provides significantly improved conversions of alkanes to aromatics, notably hexane to benzene, which are approximately constant with carbon number17 compared to bifunctional PtRe formulations at 493°C and 100 psig (0.79 mPa), the conversions of n hexane, n heptane, and n octane were 28%, 47% and 60% for PtRe, and 92%, 87% and 85% for PtL. 

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