M Ghorbani - Petroleum Engineering Department, Fars University of Science and Research, Shiraz, Iran
L Shiri - Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
A Salem - Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

Styrene is one of the most important monomers in modern petrochemical industry. The most important commercial methods for styrene production are the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene. In styrene production, the catalyst slowly deactivates and typically need to be replaced every 1-2 years. Coke deposition causes loss of activity and catalyst regeneration by burning off the deposited coke necessary, so one of the problems which need to be overcome before catalyst can be developed for commercial use is to reduce the coke deposition on the catalyst. Gasification process which converts carbonaceous fuel to gaseous product. Gasification is an effective way to convert coke to CO and CO2. In this study, the effects of content and sintering temperature of catalyst were investigated on a coke gasification reaction. For this purpose, the different values of fresh and sintered catalysts were added in coke and then gasification rate was studied in oxygen atmosphere by using a TG-DTA technique under heat temperature of 5°C/min from environment temperature to 600 oC. A kinetic model was used to better understanding the weight variation. By using this model kinetic parameters were calculated. The obtained results showed that the decrease of catalyst content and sintering temperature reduce the gasification rate.

gasification, catalyst dehydrogenation, sintering, Kinetic model