Isomerization of light alkanes catalyzed by sulfated zirconia and conventional catalysts

The project focuses on catalyst development for isomerization catalysts. The economic utilization of light hydrocarbons like butanes, pentanes and hexanes found in natural gas liquids depends to a large extent on producing the skeletal isomers of these co mpounds since the value of the straight-chained products (alkanes or alkenes) often is lower tan the value of the corresponding iso-compounds. The work will involve the synthesis and characterization as well as reaction studies of sulfated zirconia cataly sts. These materials show very high acidity, and have been proposed as catalysts for several reactions. The effect of promoters (Pt or other promoters) and of supporting the materials on high surface area supports will be studied. Comparisons will bemade to conventional isomerization catalysts. The focus of the reaction studies will be on n-butane isomerization at industrially relevant conditions, but studies of n-pentane will also be performedto investigate the applicability t