Influence of 13X zeolite on activity of Ni catalysts in competitive benzene hydrogenation

Benzene is one of the components of gasoline which cause problems on health issues on human body and the environment. Therefore, it is important to reduce or remove the benzene released to the air. Several techniques have been applied in order to remove benzene. One of the promising methods to eliminate the unsaturated compounds and turn them into other environmentally-friendly materials is catalytic hydrogenation. According to the previous researches, Ni-catalysts indicates the best activity for benzene hydrogenation depending on their reducibility of the metallic phase. Other parameters which can be effective on the activity of the reaction are: nature of the supports, preparation method, dispersion and so forth. MCF (mesocellular silica foam) is an aerogel-like silica mesopore which has a sufficient thermal stability. Adding zeolite improves the application of silicate materials in hydrogenation reaction due to their porous and ordered structure [1,2]. All of the catalysts were prepared by wet-impregnation method and the reaction was performed in a micro fixed-bed reactor under atmospheric pressure, and the main product of benzene hydrogenation is cyclohexane which is the desired product. In this study, benzene hydrogenation in BTX mixture was evaluated using MCF and MCF-13X zeolite as supports. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of zeolite nature on the catalytic activity of the hydrogenation reaction in the temperature range of 150-190°C. The prepared catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction, SEM and UV-vis DRS. The results show that the best activity including benzene conversion and selectivity to cyclohexane is related to Ni/MCF-13X at 190°C (67% and 83% respectively).

Keywords:

Activity test , Benzene hydrogenation , Nickel nanoparticles , hybrid supports