Study of Propane Dehydrogenation To Propylene in An Integrated Fluidized Bed Reactor Using Pt-Sn/Al-SAPO-34 Novel Catalyst
Study of Propane Dehydrogenation To Propylene in An Integrated Fluidized Bed Reactor Using Pt-Sn/Al-SAPO-34 Novel Catalyst
Study of Propane Dehydrogenation To Propylene in An Integrated Fluidized Bed Reactor Using Pt-Sn/Al-SAPO-34 Novel Catalyst
Direct propane dehydrogenation is the most economical route to propylene, but very complex due to
endothermic reaction requirements, equilibrium limitations, stereochemistry, and engineering constraints. The
state of the art idea of bimodal particle (gas-solid-solid) fluidization was applied, in order to overcome
alkane dehydrogenation reaction barriers in a fluidized bed technology. In this study, the propane
dehydrogenation reaction was studied in an integrated fluidized bed reactor, using Pt-Sn/Al-SAPO-34 novel
catalyst at 590 C. The results of fixed bed microreactor and integrated bimodal particle fluidized bed reactors
were compared and parametrically characterized. The results showed that the propylene selectivity is over
95%, with conversion between 31 and 24%. This significant enhancement is by using novel bimodal particle
fluidization system, owing to uniform heat transfer throughout the reactor and transfer coke from principal
catalyst to secondary catalyst, which increases principal catalysts stability. Experimental investigation reveals
that the novel Pt-Sn/Al-SAPO-34 catalyst and proposed intensified design of fluidized bed reactor is a promising
opportunity for direct propane dehydrogenation to propylene, with both economic and operational benefit.
Introduction
Light olefins production from alkane dehydrogenation has
been in practice since 1930.1 At first chromia-alumina and then
platinum based catalysts got preference in alkane dehydrogenation. Time and time again, catalyst design breakthroughs have
made major contributions to dehydrogenation technology.
Propane and butane are cheep and easily available raw materials
as they are produced through a number of petrochemical
processes, while the propylene market demand is rapidly
increasing.2-4 The petrochemical industry is trying to shift
toward direct propane dehydrogenation technology as it does
not require a large investment and has room for easy integration
with existing production facilities.
The first butane dehydrogenation plant was designed by UOP
(Universal Oil Products, USA) and ICI, England, in 1940.5 Soon
after, other companies, Phillips Petroleum, Houdry, Shell, Gulf,
and Dow, also built similar dehydrogenation technologies.
Phillips Petroleum built a multitubular dehydrogenation reactor
in 1943, with an oxidehydrogenation approach.1 Houdry designed dehydrogenation process at less than atmospheric pressure for higher conversions, for the production of butenes using
chromia-alumina catalyst (Catadiene).6 Later this process was
commercialized by the Petro-Tex Chemical Corporation, with
the name Oxo-D.6 A varity of light olefins were produced by
thermal and catalytic cracking in bulk quantity as byproduct,
forces to shutdown direct olefins production in the 1970s.
In the late 1980s, the application of chromia-alumina
catalysts was extended by Houdry for dehydrogenation of
propane and isobutene; they renamed the process Catofin, and
about ten units were commercialized.7 Out of these, two
processes were particularly designed for propane dehydroegenation to propylene, of about 250 000 MTA propylene
capacities. The Catofin technology used an adiabatic fixed bed
reactor at 570-630 C and 0.5 bar, reported at 40-65%
conversion.1,7 The Catofin technology is currently owned by
Sud-Chemie and license by ABB Lummus. Phillips Petroleums,
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wf-dce@
tsinghua.edu.cn.
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Pt content
(wt %)
Sn content
(wt %)
Al content
(wt %)
Pt-Sn/Al
0.47
0.86
17.6
coke
(wt %)a
deactivation
(%)b
0.41
0.24
54
45
a
O2-pulse coke analysis. b Deactivation ) [(X0 - Xf)/X0 100],
where, X0 is the initial conversion at 5 min and Xf is the final propane
conversion.
4616
Figure 3. Influence of WHSV on catalysts performance in a novel bimodal particle (gas-solid-solid) fluidized bed reactor.
4617
Figure 4. Influence of H2/C3H8 molar ratio on catalyst performance in a fluidized bed reactor.
4618
conversion
cycle II
selectivity
conversion
cycle III
selectivity
conversion
selectivity
TOS
1h
8h
1h
8h
1h
8h
1h
8h
1h
8h
1h
8h
Pt-Sn-based
29.1
26.2
85.4
96.8
28.3
25.5
85.9
96.9
27.2
24.6
87.9
97.4
Reaction conditions: T ) 590 C. WHSV ) 5.6 h-1. H2/C3H8 molar ratio ) 0.25.
4619
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