Sulfated zirconia acidity

Both sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid catalyzed alkylations are low temperature processes. Table 3-13 gives the alkylation conditions for HF and H2SO4 processes. One drawback of using H2SO4 and HF in alkylation is the hazards associated with it. Many attempts have been tried to use solid catalysts such as zeolites, alumina and ion exchange resins. Also strong solid acids such as sulfated zirconia and SbFs/sulfonic acid resins were tried. Although they were active, nevertheless they lack stability. No process yet proved successful due to the fast deactivation of the catalyst. A new process which may have commercial possibility, uses... 

The major disadvantage of the alkylation process is that acid is consumed in considerable quantities (up to 100 kg of acid per ton of product). Hence, solid acids have been explored extensively as alternatives. In particular, solid super acids such sulfated zirconia SO/ IZr02) show excellent activities for alkylation, but only for a short time, because the catalyst suffers from coke deposition due to oligomerization of alkenes. These catalysts are also extremely sensitive to water. 

There is a real opportunity to reduce biodiesel production costs and environmental impact by applying modem catalyst technology, which will allow increased process flexibility to incorporate the use of low-cost high-FFA feedstock, and reduce water and energy requirement. Solid catalysts such as synthetic polymeric catalysts, zeolites and superacids like sulfated zirconia and niobic acid have the strong potential to replace liquid acids, eliminating separation, corrosion and environmental problems. Lotero et al. recently published a review that elaborates the importance of solid acids for biodiesel production. ... 

Out of the metal oxides, sulfated titania and tin oxide performed slightly better than the sulfated zirconia (SZ) catalyst and niobic acid (Nb205). However, SZ is cheaper and readily available on an industrial scale. Moreover, it is already applied in several industrial processes (7,8). Zirconia can be modified with sulfate ions to form a superacidic catalyst, depending on the treatment conditions (11-16). In our experiments, SZ showed high activity and selectivity for the esterification of fatty acids with a variety of alcohols, from 2-ethylhexanol to methanol. Increasing... 

Figure 33.2. Esterification of dodecanoic acid with methanol, using an alcohokacid ratio of 3 1 and sulfated zirconia (SZ) as catalyst.

Other materials that have been investigated include sulfated zirconia, Br0nsted and Lewis acids promoted on various supports, heteropolyacids, and organic resins, both supported and unsupported. On the whole, these materials also deactivate rapidly, and some of them also exhibit environmental and health hazards. 

III.C. Othf.r Solid Acids III.C. 1. Sulfated Zirconia and Related Materials... 

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. 

An interesting variation on sulfated metal oxide type catalysts was presented by Sun et al. (198), who impregnated a dealuminated zeolite BEA with titanium and iron salts and subsequently sulfated the material. The samples exhibited a better time-on-stream behavior in the isobutane/1-butene alkylation (the reaction temperature was not given) than H-BEA and a mixture of sulfated zirconia and H-BEA. The product distribution was also better for the sulfated metal oxide-impregnated BEA samples. These results were explained by the higher concentration of strong Brpnsted acid sites of the composite materials than in H-BEA. 

Cesium salts of 12-tungstophosphoric acid have been compared to the pure acid and to a sulfated zirconia sample for isobutane/1-butene alkylation at room temperature. The salt was found to be much more active than either the acid or sulfated zirconia (201). Heteropolyacids have also been supported on sulfated zirconia catalysts. The combination was found to be superior to heteropolyacid supported on pure zirconia and on zirconia and other supports that had been treated with a variety of mineral acids (202). Solutions of heteropolyacids (containing phosphorus or silicon) in acetic acid were tested as alkylation catalysts at 323 K by Zhao et al. (203). The system was sensitive to the heteropoly acid/acetic acid ratio and the amount of crystalline water. As observed in the alkylation with conventional liquid acids, a polymer was formed, which enhanced the catalytic activity. 

The combination of dicyclopentadienylzirconium dichloride and silver perchlorate activates armed glycosyl sulfoxides in dichloromethane between -20 °C and room temperature, but only very simple acceptors were studied [335]. Other Lewis and Bronsted acids studied include the environmentally benign europium, lanthanum and ytterbium triflates [336], certain polyoxometallates [337], sulfated zirconia [338] and Nafion H [338]. 

M. -Trung Tran, N. S. Gnep, G. Szabo, and M. Guisnet, Influence of the calcination temperature on the acidic and catalytic properties of sulphated zirconia, Appl. Catal. A 171, 207-217 (1998). P. Canton, R. Olindo, F. Pinna, G. Strukul, P. Rieflo, M. Meneghetti, G. Cerrato, C. Morterra, and A. Benedetti, Alumina-promoted sulfated zirconia system Structure and microstructure characterization, Chem. Mater. 13, 1634-1641 (2001). 

X. Song, A. Sayari, Sulfated zirconia-based strong solid-acid catalysts Recent progress,Cato/. Rev. Sci. Eng. 38, 329-412 (1996). 

The catalyst with lower acid strength (beta zeolite) presents the higher selectivity to (TMP) at high reaction temperatures, while the sulfated zirconia presents an opposite trend the lower the reaction temperature, the higher the selectivity to TMP is. In the case of sulfated zirconia catalysts, cracking rather than alkylation is favored at high reaction temperatures, while oligomerization rather than alkylation is favored on the beta zeolite at low reaction temperature. 

Figure 13.7 shows an effective confrontation between the catalytic results observed on nafion/Si02, sulfated zirconia, and 12-tungstophosphoric acid supported on MCM-41 (HPW/MCM) at a reaction temperature of 50°C. Under these conditions, the HPW/MCM catalyst presents the better yield of TMP. However, similar productivities to that could be obtained on nafion/Si02, or sulfated zirconia, at higher or lower temperatures, respectively, than those optimized for the HPW/MCM-41 catalyst. ... 

Figure 13.7 Conversion of 2-butene and the selectivities to cracking products, TMP, and C9+ hydrocarbons during the isobutane alkylation at 50°C on nafion/Si02 (NS-1), sulfated zirconia (SZ), and MCM-41-supported 12-tungstophosphoric acid (HPW/MCM). Experimental conditions T = 32 C TOS = 1 min molar ratio of 15.

Figure 13.8 Catalyst decay during the isobutane alkylation on nafion/Si02, sulfated zirconia, beta-zeolite, and MCM-41-supported 12-tungstophosphoric acid.

Also for this reaction, namely esterification plus transesterification, mixed oxides, this time acidic in nature, appear to be the most promising alternative. Tungstated zirconia-alumina (WZA), sulfated zirconia-alumina and sulfated tin oxide were shown to be active in the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol at 200-300 °C and in the esterification of n-octanoic acid with methanol at 175-200 °C. Although the order of activities is different for the two reactions, WZA gives high conversions in both readions and it is stable under the reaction conditions [31]. Titania on zirconia, alumina on zirconia and zirconia on alumina also showed good performances [32, 6]. 

Figure 3. Stability of the sulfated zirconia catalyst in the esterification reaction of dodecanoic acid with 2-ethylhexanol - conversions given at 25, 45 and 75 minutes.

Furuta et al. tested a series of strong solid acids (alumina promoted sulfated zirconia, alumina promoted tungstated zirconia and sulfated tin oxide) for the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol at 200-300°C. Reaction yields over 90% were obtained for the alumina promoted tungstated zirconia at reaction times of 20 h using a flow reactor T = 250°C). The activity of the same catalyst was maintained for up to 100 h. 

By in situ MAS NMR spectroscopy, the Koch reaction was also observed upon co-adsorption of butyl alcohols (tert-butyl, isobutyl, and -butyl) and carbon monoxide or of olefins (Ao-butylene and 1-octene), carbon monoxide, and water on HZSM-5 (Ksi/ Ai — 49) under mild conditions (87,88). Under the same conditions, but in the absence of water (89), it was shown that ethylene, isobutylene, and 1-octene undergo the Friedel-Crafts acylation (90) to form unsaturated ketones and stable cyclic five-membered ring carboxonium ions instead of carboxylic acids. Carbonylation of benzene by the direct reaction of benzene and carbon monoxide on solid catalysts was reported by Clingenpeel et al. (91,92). By C MAS NMR spectroscopy, the formation of benzoic acid (178 ppm) and benzaldehyde (206 ppm) was observed on zeolite HY (91), AlC -doped HY (91), and sulfated zirconia (SZA) (92). 

Isoalkanes can also be synthesized by using two-component catalyst systems composed of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst and an acidic catalyst. Ruthenium-exchanged alkali zeolites288 289 and a hybrid catalyst290 (a mixture of RuNaY zeolite and sulfated zirconia) allow enhanced isoalkane production. On the latter catalyst 91% isobutane in the C4 fraction and 83% isopentane in the C5 fraction were produced. The shift of selectivity toward the formation of isoalkanes is attributed to the secondary, acid-catalyzed transformations on the acidic catalyst component of primary olefinic (Fischer-Tropsch) products. 

According to an early report, sulfated zirconia promoted with 1.5% Fe and 0.5% Mn increased the rate of isomerization of n-butane to isobutane by several orders of magnitude at modest temperature (28°C).299 This reactivity is surprising, since the isomerization of n-butane in strong liquid acids takes place at a rate much lower than that of higher alkanes, which is due to the involvement of the primary carbocationic intermediate. In addition, other solid acids, such as zeolites, did not show activity under such mild conditions. Evidence by isotope labeling studies with double-labeled n-butane unequivocally shows, however, that the isomerization of... 

In conclusion, extensive research has revealed that the Lewis and Brpnsted acid sites on the promoted sulfated zirconia catalysts are not necessarily stronger acids than the corresponding sites in zeolites, but sulfated zirconia circumvents the energetically unfavorable monomolecular reaction path by following a bimolecular mechanism. The question of superacidity of sulfated zirconia, however, is still debated.312... 

Studies with sulfated zirconia also show similar fast catalyst deactivation in the alkylation of isobutane with butenes. It was found, however, that original activities were easily restored by thermal treatment under air without the loss of selectivity to trimethylpentanes. Promoting metals such as Fe, Mn, and Pt did not have a marked effect on the reaction.362,363 Heteropoly acids supported on various oxides have the same characteristics as sulfated zirconia.364 Wells-Dawson heteropoly acids supported on silica show high selectivity for the formation of trimethylpentanes and can be regenerated with 03 at low temperature (125°C).365... 

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