Catalytic and Transport Mechanisms of Supercritical Fuels.
Abstract
One of the largest scale catalytic processes practiced in the petroleum industry is the cracking large petroleum molecules into smaller hydrocarbons, primarily in the gasoline range. In the United States, cracking capacity exceeds l0-l5 million barrels per day. However, the efficient conversion of low grade hydrocarbons to engine fuels with the concomitant absorption of large amounts of heat requires high temperature processing in order to overcome the thermodynamic limitations on conversion. Commercial catalytic cracking and reforming catalysts would rapidly deactivate within the order of seconds when applied under the temperatures required to operate an efficient endothermic fuel conversion process. The overall objective of this research is based on developing a good understanding of the mechanism and theoretical aspects of the behavior of fuels processed by catalysts under supercritical conditions to avoid rapid catalyst deactivation. The approach to be used in this research to gain direct mechanistic information relating to this problem is the use of a novel technique which we developed for examining catalytic reactions via in-situ spectroscopic methods under supercritical conditions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA320741
Entities
People
- Louis Spadaccini
- William R. Moster
- Yi H. Ma
Organizations
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute