n-Heptane isomerization over Pt/WO3-ZrO2: A kinetic study Original Research Article

Kinetics of n-C7 isomerization was investigated over Pt loaded WO3-ZrO2 using a fixed-bed reactor under hydrogen pressure and the effect of reaction conditions on the activity of the catalyst towards n-C7 isomerization and product selectivity was studied. The study shows that the cracked products appear mainly from di-branched isomers of heptane. By controlling the reaction conditions, the octane number of the feed was increased from 0 to 32 with 93% fuel volume recovery. The major product among the mono-branched isomers was 3-methyhexane while 2,3-dimethylpentane was dominant among di-branched isomers. Craking products consisted mainly of propane and isobutane which were produced from dimethylpentanes. Simplified kinetic models were developed based on the reaction conditions. The apparent kinetic parameters for mono-isomerization (M), di-isomerization (D) and cracking (C) reactions were estimated using nonlinear regression analysis. The apparent activation energies were found to decrease as follows: EC > EM > ED.