Effect of Molecular Structure of C10 Hydrocarbons on Production of Light Olefins in Catalytic Cracking

Abstract

The effect of the molecular structure of feedstock on the cracking reaction of C10 hydrocarbons to ethylene and propylene over H-ZSM-5 zeolite was investigated. To better compare the effect of decane on the production of light olefins, the thermal cracking and catalytic cracking performance of decane were first investigated. As a comparison, the thermal cracking and catalytic cracking of decane were studied by cracking over quartz sand and H-ZSM-5. Compared with the thermal cracking reaction over quartz sand, the catalytic cracking reaction of decane over H-ZSM-5 has a significantly higher conversion and light olefins selectivity, especially when the reaction temperature was lower than 600 °C. On this basis, the catalytic cracking reactions of decane and decene over H-ZSM-5 were further compared. It was found that decene with a double bond structure had high reactivity over H-ZSM-5 and was almost completely converted, and the product was mainly olefin. Compared with decane as feedstock, it has a lower methane yield and higher selectivity of light olefins. Therefore, decene was more suitable for the production of light olefins than decane. To this end, we designed a new light olefin production process. Through olefin cracking, the yield of light olefins in the product can be effectively improved, and the proportion of different light olefins such as ethylene, propylene and butene can be flexibly adjusted.