Reforming Kinetics for R16H Bimetallic Catalyst

Complete reforming kinetics have been developed for several commercial catalysts, including those used in Mobil reformers. Since KINPTR affects Mobil s business strategy, the complete reforming kinetics are proprietary. However, as an example, KINPTR C6 kinetics will be presented for UOP s R16H platinum-rhenium-alumina catalyst. Both the hydrocarbon conversion and the deactivation equations [Eqs. (36), (40)] can be directly applied to the C6 system. For the C6 hydrocarbon conversion, Eq. (40) becomes 

As discussed previously, the reverse rate constants k(J- satisfy microscopic reversibility  

The deactivation parameters aij are determined by integrating the kinetic deactivation equations  

The selectivity and equilibrium parameters for the C6 system are given in Table IX, the activity parameters in Table X, and the deactivation parameters in Table XI. 

R16H selectivity and activity kinetics were fit over a wide range of temperature and pressure. Reforming selectivity is shown in Figs. 16 and 17, where benzene and hexane are plotted against C5-, the extent of reaction parameter. The effect of pressure on reforming a 50/50 mixture of benzene and cyclohexane at 756 K is shown in Fig. 16. Selectivity to benzene improves significantly when pressure is decreased from 2620 to 1220 kPa. In fact, at 2620 kPa, hexane is favored over benzene when the C5 yield exceeds 10%. This selectivity behavior can be seen in the selectivity rate constants  

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