ISOMERIZATION OF C-4 TO C-7 PARAFFINS ON ZEOLITIC CATALYSTS (BIBLIOGRAPHIC REVIEW)

There has been renewed interest in the isomerization of alkanes since legislation, with a view to environmental protection, has undertaken to eliminate lead alkyls from gasoline between now and 1992. Starting from low octane-number n-paraffins issuing from catalytic reforming or straight-run distillation, this catalytic reaction can be used to produce iso-paraffins having a much higher octane number. It is thermodynamically enhanced at low temperature and hence requires the use of catalysts developing high acidity. Two types of catalysts are currently used industrially, i.e. Pt base catalysts on chlorinated alumina and Pt base zeolitic catalysts on mordenite. These latter are considered to be the new generation of catalysts. They have the advantage of being easy to use and of being much less sensitive to the presence of poisons such as sulfur and water in the feedstock. However, they lead to a considerably lower improvement in octane than what is obtained with Pt catalysts on chlorinated alumina. This bibliographic study reviews the different mechanisms used according to the type of catalyst, the kinetic data obtained from the literature and the different processes used. In particular, it highlights the respective contributions of the acidic and metallic functions for the isomerization of C4 to C7 alkanes. Indeed, depending on the type of catalyst used, it appears the traction mechanism may be acidic bifunctional or monofunctional. In some cases two mechanisms might even be superposed. The study has also considered the effect of the length of this carbon chain on the isomerization reaction as well as the influence of the presence of ring compounds, whether aromatic or not. It seems that the reactivity of alkanes increases with the number of carbon atoms and with the degree of branching of the molecule, and that the presence of aromatic compounds inhibits the isomerization reaction. This last point is of great industrial importance.