Alkylation of isobutane with butenes: Development of new catalysts

BRUNO O. DALLA COSTA; MARÍA A. ULLA; CARLOS A. QUERINI

Salamanca - España

Congreso; EuropaCat IX; 2009

The isobutane alkylation with butene is carried out using sulphuric or fluorhydric acids as catalysts. The toxicity and handling problems of these substances have led to search solid acids to replace them. Many materials have been studied getting good activity and selectivity, but the rapid deactivation and drawbacks associated with the regeneration have limited its application to industrial level. In this work SBA-15 type mesoporous silica are studied and compare with La and H exchanged Y zeolite, which is active for the reaction. The SBA catalysts formed similar quantities of coke as the Y zeolite, which is used as reference. According to pyridine TPD, SBA catalysts should display some activity, however this has not yet been reflected in reaction. This could be given by differences in the butene adsorption, which is seemingly strongly adsorbed avoiding the reaction progress, as shown in the butene TPD experiments.