Solid acid catalysts zeolite

The enhanced diffusivity of polynuclear compounds in sc C02 has been utilized to enhance catalyst lifetimes in both 1-butene/isoparaffin alkylations (Clark and Subramaniam, 1998 Gao et al., 1996). The former may be catalyzed using a number of solid acid catalysts (zeolites, sulfated zeolites, etc.), and the use of sc C02 as a solvent/diluent permits the alkylations to be carried out at relatively mild temperatures, leading to the increased production of valuable trimethylpentanes (which are used as high-octane gasoline blending components). The enhancement of product selectivity in the latter process is believed to result from rapid diffusion of ethylbenzene product away from the Y-type zeolite catalysts, thus preventing product isomerization to xylenes. 

Whereas solid acid catalysts (zeolites) have been intensively studied, only recently has the use of basic solid catalysts received substantial interest for production of intermediate and fine chemicals [1], Heterogeneous catalytic transformations are environmentally friendly compared with processes requiring neutralization and... 

Many superacid-catalyzed reactions were found to be carried out advantageously not only using liquid superacids but also over solid superacids, including Nafion-H or certain zeolites. We extensively studied the catalytic activity of Nafion-H and related solid acid catalysts (including supported perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and its higher ho-... 

Zeolites are used in various applications such as household detergents, desiccants and as catalysts. In the mid-1960s, Rabo and coworkers at Union Carbide and Plank and coworkers at Mobil demonstrated that faujasitic zeolites were very interesting solid acid catalysts. Since then, a wealth of zeolite-catalyzed reactions of hydrocarbons has been discovered. Eor fundamental catalysis they offer the advantage that the crystal structure is known, and that the catalytically active sites are thus well defined. The fact that zeolites posses well-defined pore systems in which the catalytically active sites are embedded in a defined way gives them some similarity to enzymes. 

Another recent new application of a microporous materials in oil refining is the use of zeolite beta as a solid acid system for paraffin alkylation [3]. This zeolite based catalyst, which is operated in a slurry phase reactor, also contains small amounts of Pt or Pd to facilitate catalyst regeneration. Although promising, this novel solid acid catalyst system, has not as yet been applied commercially. 

Acid-catalysed rearrangement of epoxides is another widely used reaction in the fine chemicals industry. Here again the use of solid acid catalysts such as zeolites is proving advantageous. Two examples are shown in Fig. 2.25 the isomerization of rsophorone oxide (Elings et al., 1997) and the conversion of a-pinene oxide to campholenic aldehyde (Holderich et al., 1997 Kunkeler etal., 1998). Both products are fragrance intermediates. 

Reactivity of a number of solid acid catalysts that include zeolites, resin, nafion and HP As was determined for the direct reaction of ethylene with acetic acid to produce ethyl acetate (Table 1). It was established that the Keggin HSiW supported on silica is very active for the vapom phase reaction of acetic acid with ethylene at about 180°C, 145 psig with a high molar ratio of ethylene to... 

Traditionally, the production of LABs has been practiced commercially using either Lewis acid catalysts, or liquid hydrofluoric acid (HF).2 The HF catalysis typically gives 2-phenylalkane selectivities of only 17-18%. More recently, UOP/CEPSA have announced the DetalR process for LAB production that is reported to employ a solid acid catalyst.3 Within the same time frame, a number of papers and patents have been published describing LAB synthesis using a range of solid acid (sterically constrained) catalysts, including acidic clays,4 sulfated oxides,5 plus a variety of acidic zeolite structures.6"9 Many of these solid acids provide improved 2-phenylalkane selectivities. 

Beckmann rearrangement of oxime is an acid catalysed reaction. The environmental problems associated with the use of sulphuric acid instigated interest to use number of solid acid catalysts [1], There are only scanty references about Lewis acid ion-exchanged MeAlPOs. Beyer et al. [2], Mihalyi et al. [3] and Mavrodinova et al. [4] already suggested the presence of Lewis acid metal ions as MO+ species in zeolites. The present study focussed the synthesis and characterisation of Fe3+, La3+ and Ce3+ ion-exchanged MAPO-36. The catalytic results of Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime over ion-exchanged catalysts are delineated in this article. 

The technology and chemistry of isoalkane-alkene alkylation have been thoroughly reviewed for both liquid and solid acid catalysts (15) and for solid acid catalysts alone (16). The intention of this review is to provide an up-to-date overview of the alkylation reaction with both liquid and solid acids as catalysts. The focus is on the similarities and differences between the liquid acid catalysts on one hand and solid acid catalysts, especially zeolites, on the other. Thus, the reaction mechanism, the physical properties of the individual catalysts, and their consequences for successful operation are reviewed. The final section is an overview of existing processes and new process developments utilizing solid acids. 

In a series of investigations of the cracking of alkanes and alkenes on Y zeolites (74,75), the effect of coke formation on the conversion was examined. The coke that formed was found to exhibit considerable hydride transfer activity. For some time, this activity can compensate for the deactivating effect of the coke. On the basis of dimerization and cracking experiments with labeled 1-butene on zeolite Y (76), it is known that substantial amounts of alkanes are formed, which are saturated by hydride transfer from surface polymers. In both liquid and solid acid catalysts, hydride transfer from isoalkanes larger than... 

Zeolite molecular sieves are widely used as solid acid catalysts or catalyst components in areas ranging from petroleum refining to the synthesis of intermediates and fine chemicals (112,113). An important reason for their widespread use is the flexibility they oflFer regarding the tailoring of the concentration and nature of catalytically active sites and their immediate environments. We note that discrimination between chemical and structural aspects works well at a conceptual level, but one faces quite severe limitations as soon as one tries to separate the contributions of the two effects. The complexity arises because the chemical properties of a particular molecular sieve are connected with its framework density. 

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. 

In addition to this, solid acid catalysts can also be used in the hydroisomerization cracking of heavy paraffins, or as co-catalysts in Fischer-Tropsch processes. In the first case, it could also be possible to transform inexpensive refinery cuts with a low octane number (heavy paraffins, n-Cg 20) to fuel-grade gasoline (C4-C7) using bifunctional metal/acid catalysts. In the last case, by combining zeolites with platinum-promoted tungstate modified zirconia, hybrid catalysts provide a promising way to obtain clean synthetic liquid fuels from coal or natural gas. 

Moreover, the catalyst deactivation must also be considered in order to use these solid materials in industrial processes. Figure 13.8 shows the variation of catal54ic activity (2-butene conversion) with the time on stream obtained under the same reaction conditions on different solid-acid catalysts. It can be seen how all the solid-acids catalysts studied generally suffer a relatively rapid catalyst deactivation, although both beta zeolite and nafion-sihca presented the lower catalyst decays. Since the regeneration of beta zeolite is more easy than of nafion, beta zeolite was considered to be an interesting alternative. ... 

Zeolite catalysts play a vital role in modern industrial catalysis. The varied acidity and microporosity properties of this class of inorganic oxides allow them to be applied to a wide variety of commercially important industrial processes. The acid sites of zeolites and other acidic molecular sieves are easier to manipulate than those of other solid acid catalysts by controlling material properties, such as the framework Si/Al ratio or level of cation exchange. The uniform pore size of the crystalline framework provides a consistent environment that improves the selectivity of the acid-catalyzed transformations that form C-C bonds. The zeoHte structure can also inhibit the formation of heavy coke molecules (such as medium-pore MFl in the Cyclar process or MTG process) or the desorption of undesired large by-products (such as small-pore SAPO-34 in MTO). While faujasite, morden-ite, beta and MFl remain the most widely used zeolite structures for industrial applications, the past decade has seen new structures, such as SAPO-34 and MWW, provide improved performance in specific applications. It is clear that the continued search for more active, selective and stable catalysts for industrially important chemical reactions will include the synthesis and application of new zeolite materials. 

Although there are some important differences between what we describe as 3-connected aluminium sites in our bb-matrices and what the active sites are thought to be in zeolites, we have begun a preliminary study of the activities of the Al, Ti and V-containing bb-catalysts as solid acid catalysts in the dehydration of alcohols. For this type of bench marking reaction, there are two parameters that can be used as preliminary indicators of catalytic activity lightoff temperatures and product selectivity. A plot of conversion versus temperature produces what is known as a lightoff curve. The temperature at which 50% of the maximum... 

Rare-earth exchanged [Ce ", La ", Sm"" and RE (RE = La/Ce/Pr/Nd)] Na-Y zeolites, K-10 montmorillonite clay and amorphous silica-alumina have also been employed as solid acid catalysts for the vapour-phase Beckmann rearrangement of salicylaldoxime 245 to benzoxazole 248 (equation 74) and of cinnamaldoxime to isoquinoline . Under appropriate reaction conditions on zeolites, salicyl aldoxime 245 undergoes E-Z isomerization followed by Beckmann rearrangement and leads to the formation of benzoxazole 248 as the major product. Fragmentation product 247 and primary amide 246 are formed as minor compounds. When catalysts with both Br0nsted and Lewis acidity were used, a correlation between the amount of Br0nsted acid sites and benzoxazole 248 yields was observed. 

Measurement of the thermokinetic parameter can be used to provide a more detailed characterization of the acid properties of solid acid catalysts, for example, differentiate reversible and irreversible adsorption processes. For example, Auroux et al. [162] used volumetric, calorimetric, and thermokinetic data of ammonia adsorption to obtain a better definition of the acidity of decationated and boron-modified ZSM5 zeolites (Figure 13.7). 

Isopropylatlon of biphenyl catalyzed by solid acid catalysts gave a mixture of three Isomers of Isopropylbiphenyl (IPBP) and many Isomers of dllsopropylblphenyl (DIBP). The 12-membered zeolites, HM, HY, and HL gave quite different features In selectivity. Isopropylatlon catalyzed by HM was highly selective to give 4-IPBP and 4,4 -DIBP. However, catalyses by HY and HL were nonselectlve similar to the case of amorphous silica-alumina. 

Scheme 2 Triglycerides can be hydrolyzed to give fatty acids and glycerol. This can be catalyzed by solid acid catalysts like zeolites or acid exchanged resins.

Scheme 6 Fructose can be transformed into 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) via acid-catalyzed dehydration. Solid acid catalysts applied to facilitate the reaction are zeolites, ion-exchange resins and solid inorganic phosphates. With sporadic success, notably with inorganic phosphates, other carbohydrate sources such as inulin can also be transformed into HMF.

With zeolites as the solid acid catalyst, the best results for HMF synthesis were obtained by Moreau et al. who tested acidic mordenites with different Si/Al ratios in batch experiments and reported that dealuminated H-Mordenite with Si/Al ratio of 11 exhibited the highest selectivity and even so at reasonably high fructose conversion (91% selectivity at 76% conversion after 60 min. at 165 °C using water/methyl isobutyl ketone as the reaction media).Other zeolites, H-Y, H-Beta and H-ZSM-5 were also tested for the reaction, however, none of these catalysts were as selective as H-mordenite. ... 

With this purpose, several different types of solid acid catalysts have been investigated for the acylation of aromatics, but the best performances have been obtained with medium-pore and large-pore zeolites (3-9). In general, however, the use of acylating agents other then halides, e.g., anhydrides or acids, is limited to the transformation of aromatic substrates highly activated towards electrophilic substitution. In a previous work (10), we investigated the benzoylation of resorcinol (1,3-dihydroxybenzene), catalyzed by acid clays. It was found that the reaction mechanism consists of the direct 0-benzoylation with formation of resorcinol monobenzoate, while no primary formation of the product of C-benzoylation (2,4-dihydroxybenzophenone) occurred. The latter product formed exclusively by... 

Zeolites have many uses, most importantly as cation exchangers (e.g., in water softening), as desiccants (i.e., drying agents), and as solid acid catalysts. 

Carboxylic acids can also be formed by a reaction of small alkanes, carbon monoxide, and water on solid acid catalysts (93,94). By in situ C MAS NMR spectroscopy (93), the activation of propane and isobutane on acidic zeolite HZSM-5 was investigated in the presence of carbon monoxide and water. Propane was converted to isobutyric acid at 373 73 K, while isobutane was transformed into pivalic acid with a simultaneous production of hydrogen. On SZA, methyl isopropyl ketone was observed as evidence for the carbonylation of isobutane with carbon monoxide after the sample was held at 343 K for 1 h (94). When the reaction of isobutane and carbon monoxide was carried out in the presence of water, pivalic acid was identified as the main reaction product (94). These observations are rationalized by the existence of a small number of sites capable of generating carbenium ions, which can be further trapped by carbon monoxide (93). 

Concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrogen fluoride are still mainly used in commercial isoalkane-alkene alkylation processes.353 Because of the difficulties associated with these liquid acid catalysts (see Section 5.1.1), considerable research efforts are still devoted to find suitable solid acid catalysts for replacement.354-356 Various large-pore zeolites, mainly X and Y, and more recently zeolite Beta were studied in this reaction. Considering the reaction scheme [(Eqs (5.3)—(5.5) and Scheme 5.1)] it is obvious that the large-pore zeolitic structure is a prerequisite, since many of the reaction steps involve bimolecular bulky intermediates. In addition, the fast and easy desorption of highly branched bulky products, such as trimethylpentanes, also requires sufficient and adequate pore size. Experiments showed that even with large-pore zeolite Y, alkylation is severely diffusion limited under liquid-phase conditions.357... 

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