Experimental and Kinetic Study of the Catalytic Behavior of Sulfate-Treated Nanostructured Bifunctional Zirconium Oxide Catalysts in n-Heptane Hydroisomerization Reactions

In this study, a mono-functional ZrO2 nanomaterial was treated with sulfur and loaded with two different percentages of platinum metals (i.e., 0.5 and 1 wt%) to generate an acidic bi-functional Pt/SZrO2 nanocatalyst for the purpose of increasing the catalytic activity and selectivity together. This work aims to determine the least amount of the costly platinum metal that can be added to the catalyst to achieve the appropriate balance between the acidic and metallic sites. Both rapid deactivation of the super-acid nanaocatalyst and fast cleavage of the zero-octane n-heptane chain can consequently be prevented throughout the reaction. This can be achieved by accelerating the hydroisomerization reactions at a pressure of 5 bar to reach the highest selectivity towards producing the desired multi-branched compound in fuel. Several characterization techniques, including XRD, SEM, EDX, BET, and FTIR, have been used to evaluate the physical properties of the catalysts. The best reaction product was obtained at 230 °C compared to the other tested temperatures. The conversion, selectivity, and yield of reaction products over the surfaces of the prepared catalysts followed this order: 0.5 wt% Pt/SZrO2 > 1 wt% Pt/SZrO2 > 0.5 wt% Pt/ZrO2 > 1 wt% Pt/ZrO2 > SZrO2 > ZrO2. The highest conversion, selectivity, and yield values were obtained on the surface of the 0.5 wt% Pt/SZrO2 catalyst, which are 69.64, 81.4 and 56.68 wt%, respectively, while the lowest values were obtained on the surface of the parent ZrO2 catalyst, which are 43.9, 61.1 and 26.82, respectively. The kinetic model and apparent activation energies were also implemented for each of the hydroisomerization, hydrogenation/dehydrogenation, and hydrocracking reactions, which track the following order: hydroisomerization < hydrogenation/dehydrogenation < hydrocracking. The lowest apparent activation energy value of 123.39 kJ/mol was found on the surface of the most active and selective 0.5% Pt/SZrO2 nanocatalyst.