Skeletal isomerization of 1-butene: A thorough kinetic study over ZSM-22

Zeolites and mesoporous materials are important catalysts not only for oil-refining processes, but nowadays even for the production of fine and specialty chemicals. Few thorough studies on the important factors in chemical reaction engineering: kinetics, deactivation, mass and heat transfer and flow modeling have been carried out. In the present work, a comprehensive analysis of 1-butene skeletal isomerization over ZSM-22 was conducted. Kinetics of the main product formation, i.e. isobutene, as well as side-products, i.e. propene and pentene, was modeled using Langmuir–Hinshelwood approach. The axial-dispersion model was used for describing the reactor. The behavior of the main products and byproducts was successfully explained. Uniform coking was applied to describe the deactivation behavior of the reaction and the formation of byproducts.