Effect of boron promotion on coke formation during propane dehydrogenation over Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts

MOSTAFA ALY; ESTEBAN FORNERO; JENOFF DE VRIEZE; VLADIMIR GALVITA; MARK SAEYS

Noordwijkerhout

Congreso; NCCC, The Netherlands' Catalysis and Chemistry Conference.; 2020

Coke formation continues to be an important challenge for Pt-based catalysts during propane dehydrogenation (PDH) . Boron promotion drastically reduces coke formation on nickel during steam reforming and on cobalt during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. DFT calculations and catalyst characterization indicate that reduced boron atoms selectively block step and/or subsurface sites, thus preventing nucleation and growth of deactivating carbon .In this work, boron is introduced to enhance the catalytic performance of Pt/γ-Al O catalysts during PDH. A series of catalysts with different boron loadings was prepared following various impregnation sequences. Detailed characterization and DFT calculations help identify boron?s location and state (alloy/amorphous oxide).