Dehydrogenation of methyl-cyclohexane under multiphase reaction conditions

Dehydrogenation of methyl-cyclohexane (MCH) catalyzed by Raney-Ni under a multiphase reaction condition was studied in this paper. The evolved gases were continuously separated from the reaction system through a condenser during the reaction, and the influences of the reaction temperatures (483–573 K), the amounts of the reactant (0.2–4.0 ml) feed and the catalyst (2–10 g) dosages on the conversion had been investigated. The mechanism of the multiphase reaction was analyzed from the viewpoints of the dynamic energy balance. Our experimental results showed that there existed an optimal energy balance point, which guaranteed not only the efficient contact between the reactant and catalyst, but also the higher conversion of the MCH dehydrogenation. At 523 K, with 0.5 ml MCH amount feed and 8 g Raney-Ni dosages, the dehydrogenation conversion of MCH could reach ∼ 65 % .