CATALYTIC CRACKING OF n-DECANE OVER NiO–MoO3
667
ties and structure characteristics with Co element, and into the electric heated reactor, and then the reacted
Ni-doped in HDS catalysts even achieved better per- fuel was cooled through the water condenser and sep-
formances than Co-doped catalysts [10]. Moreover, arated by gas-liquid separator. In this process, the vol-
the surface acidity and reducibility can be modulated ume of gaseous product, the mass of liquid residues
when the nickel collaborates with molybdenum to and the heat sinks were measured. Finally, the gaseous
modify catalyst in Ref. [11], which is important for products were sampled and analyzed by on-line gas
cracking reactions.
chromatography (GC, GC2000III, Shanghai Institute
of Technology and Computing) equipped with TCD
and FID detectors.
In order to give a deep insight into the relationship
between the acidic property and catalytic activity, in
this work, we investigated the influence of Ni–Mo
Catalysts characterization. N adsorption/desorp-
2
promoted Pt/ZrO –TiO –Al O catalysts with vary- tion analysis was conducted under -196°C using the
2
2
2
3
ing Al O contents on the cracking of n-decane. The Quadrasorb SI Automated Surface Area analyzer
2
3
total and strong acid acidity of the catalysts were (Quantachrome Instruments, USA). The crystal
enhanced by the addition of molybdenum and nickel. structure of the samples were obtained by a power
The relationship between structure and catalytic activ- X-ray diffraction on a DX–2005 X- ray using Cu K
α
ity was also investigated. This work provided some radiation (λ = 0.15406 nm) and operating at 40 kV and
fundamental suggestions for the design of acid cata- 25 mV. The surface acidity of each catalyst was mea-
lysts and promoter screening for the catalytic cracking sured by NH temperature programmed desorption
3
of hydrocarbon under supercritical conditions.
(NH -TPR) using a TP-5076 TPD instrument. The
3
H temperature programmed reduction (H -TPR) of
2
2
samples was performed on TP-5076 instrument
equipped with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD).
EXPERIMENTAL
Composite Oxides and Catalysts Preparation
ZrO –TiO –Al O composite oxides (mass ratio of
2
2
2
3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ZrO : TiO = 1 : 1) with different Al2O3 mass ratios
2
2
(
0.0, 10.0, 60.0 wt %) were prepared by co-precipita-
tion method. The precipitates were dried at 120°C
and calcined at 600°C for 3 hours. Then the
catalyst powders were prepared by sequential impreg-
nation method. Firstly, the as-prepared supports were
Catalytic Activity
The distribution of gaseous product. The main com-
ponents in gaseous product are hydrogen, methane,
ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and C4, as
shown in Table 1. As it can be seen, there are very
small variations in components content along with the
increase of Al O content in support. However, it is
co-impregnated
by
a
solution
containing
(
NH ) MO O · 4H O and Ni(NO ) · 6H O (MoO
4 6 7 24 2 3 2 2 3
content 10.0 wt % and NiO content 6.0 wt %), and
then impregnated by chloroplatinic acid (Pt content
2
3
worth noting that the amount of low-carbon olefins
ethylene and propylene) and hydrogen over catalytic
0
.50 wt %). After each impregnation step, the samples
(
were calcined for 2 hours at 500°C.
cracking is higher than thermal cracking. It is widely
accepted that unsaturated hydrocarbons and hydrogen
can provide more contribution to the heat absorption
of fuels [12]. Thus, this may be one of the reasons that
why catalytic cracking presented excellent heat sink
which will be discussed later. Besides, the formation of
a large number of small molecule hydrocarbons slows
The powders were subsequently ball-milled with
water to homogeneous slurry, and then coated on the
inner walls of stainless-steel pipes using vacuum
pump. The coated catalysts were dried overnight at
1
20°C, calcined at 500°C for 3 hours, labeled as Cat1,
Cat2 and Cat3, with Al O mass ratio of 0, 0.1 and 0.6,
2
3
respectively. The catalyst load of all catalysts is 0.2 ± down ignition delay [13].
0
.005 g/80 cm.
The gas yield and heat sink of the experimental sys-
tem are expressed as follows:
Catalytic Activity Evaluation
m1
m + m2
x =
× 100%,
(1)
(2)
The test apparatus used for cracking of n-decane
1
under supercritical condition is shown in Fig. 1. It is
composed of a fuel tank, tubular reactor, water con-
P = q Δh + P ,
in
m
loss
denser, gas-liquid separator, and an analysis system. where x is gas yield of n-decane, m and m represent
1
2
The stainless-tubes (SS304 Φ3 × 0.5 mm, 800 mm the mass of the gas and liquid residues, respectively. P
in
length) coated with the as-prepared catalysts were is the input power of the electrical heater, q the mass
m
used as reactors. The catalytic performance measure- flow rate of n-decane, Δh the heat sink of unit fuel of
ment was carried out from 600 to 750°C (fuel tempera- mass, and P the heat loss that can be minimized
loss
ture at outlet), the pressure was kept at 2.5 MPa (P = through insulation measures.
c
2
.1 MPa, T = 345°C of n-decane), and the mass flow
The gas yields and heat sinks of thermal cracking
c
of n-decane was 1.0 g/s. The n-decane was pumped and catalytic cracking at different temperatures are
PETROLEUM CHEMISTRY Vol. 57 No. 8 2017