Catalytic cracking of RP-3 jet fuel over wall-coated Pt/ZrxTi0.9−xAl0.1O2 mixed oxides catalysts

Abstract

This study involves a new series Pt-loaded ZrxTi0.9−xAl0.1O2 (PZTA) mixed oxides with different molar ratios of ZrO2:TiO2 (ZrO2:TiO2:Al2O3 = x:(0.9 − x):0.1, where x = 0, 0.225, 0.45, 0.675, 0.9) catalysts with high temperature resistant and large surface acidity for catalytic cracking of RP-3 jet fuel under high-temperature and high pressure conditions. PZTA catalysts were prepared by using a specially designed that co-precipitation technique subsequent incipient wetness impregnation, and were coated on the wall of stainless-steel microchannels. It was found that gas yield and heat sink of catalytic cracking over the as-prepared catalysts were noteworthy augmented compared with the thermal cracking. Furthermore, different molar ratios of ZrO2:TiO2 could greatly affect the catalytic cracking activities of RP-3 jet fuel. To be more specific, Cat3 (ZrO2:TiO2 = 0.45:0.45) performed the excellent cracking activity and high-temperature stability, which is in accordance with its bigger amount of strong acid, larger surface area and good dispersion effect of Pt. The gas yield, the alkenes content within the gas phase product and the heat sink of Cat3 at 700 °C are 40.7%, 51.5% and 3.41 MJ/kg. SEM/TEM measurements further demonstrated that the active phase (Pt) is fairly well dispersed with a particle size of 3–6 nm. The valuable information indicated in this work is that based on the special characters of PZTA, ternary composite oxides supported Pt, which should be an effective approach to maintain both catalytic activities and thermal stability.