Developing a method for increasing the service life of a higher paraffin dehydrogenation catalyst, based on the nonstationary kinetic model of a reactor

The service life of an industrial catalyst can be prolonged by improving the technological condi- tions of its operation. This allows us to maximally eliminate the catalyst deactivation factors. A specific fea- ture of the catalytic dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons is its nonstationarity produced by the deactivation of catalysts. The results of modeling the industrial catalytic process of C ₉-C ₁₄ paraffin dehydrogenation-the key stage in the production of linear alkylbenzenes-is discussed in this paper. We consider (1) thermodynamic analysis of reactions by means of quantum chemistry, (2) estimation of the kinetic model's parameters by solving the inverse kinetic problem, (3) selection of an equation that describes the coke deactivation of a catalyst, and (4) development of a method for increasing the service life of a dehydrogena- tion catalyst using a nonstationary model based on the quantitative consideration of the water added to a reac- tor within a temperature range of 470-490°C. The higher alkane dehydrogenation flowsheet proposed on the basis of these models allows us to predict the operation of a reactor in different water supply regimes. It is shown that the service life of a catalyst grows by 20-30% on the average, if water is fed by increasing portions.