Selective catalysts for hydrogenolysis/ring opening of Tetralin

PETR 18

Vincenzo Calemma, vincenzo.calemma@enitecnologie.eni.it1, Angelo Vaccari, angelo.vaccari@unibo.it2, Antonio Gambatesa2, Cristina Flego1, Ugo Cornaro1, and Roberto Giardino, roberto.giardino@enitecnologie.eni.it3. (1) Enitecnologie, Via Maritano 26, San Donato Milanese, 20097, Italy, (2) Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale e dei Materiali, Alma Mater Università di Bologna, Viale del Risorgimento 4, Bologna, 40136, Italy, (3) EniTecnologie S.p.A, via Maritano, 26, San Donato M.se (MI), 20097, Italy
The aim of this study was to investigate the catalytic behaviour of platinum and iridium based catalysts for the hydrogenation and ring opening of tetrahydronaphthalene (THN) chosen as a model reactant. Particularly, this contribution is focused on assessing the role played by the metallic phase and support characteristics as well as operating conditions on selectivity for the different classes of products during THN conversion. The different catalysts and supports were characterized by different techniques (BET surface area, XRD, Brönsted/Lewis distribution, metal dispersion. Nature of the metal and support exhibited a strong influence on hydrogenation and ring opening activity. Particularly, the platinum based catalyst showed a higher hydrogenating activity respect to the Iridium loaded catalyst. Temperature and pressure play a key role on the selectivity, the hydrogenolysis/ring opening activity being favoured at high temperature and low H2 pressure. Pt-based catalyst showed a significant hydrogenation activity forming high amounts of fully saturated compounds. Differently, Ir-based catalyst, leads to a different mixture of products where a significant fraction is made up of alkyl-benzenes.