Role of water on attenuating HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst deactivation in low-pressure ethylene oligomerization

This work focuses on the in-line low-pressure oligomerization of ethylene coming from sustainable sources (i.e. biomass, wastes or CO2), where the presence of water in the reaction medium will play a key role. The experiments were performed in a fixed-bed reactor under the following operating condit...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Tabernilla Sánchez, Zuria, Ateka Bilbao, Ainara, Aguayo Urquijo, Andrés Tomás, Epelde Bejerano, Eva
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/77442
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/77442
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ethylene oligomerization
water
HZSM-5 zeolite
gasoline
coke deactivation
Descripción
Sumario:This work focuses on the in-line low-pressure oligomerization of ethylene coming from sustainable sources (i.e. biomass, wastes or CO2), where the presence of water in the reaction medium will play a key role. The experiments were performed in a fixed-bed reactor under the following operating conditions: 275–375 °C; 1.5 bar; space time, 5.4 gcatalyst h molC-1; ethylene flow rate of 37 cm3 min−1 containing 10 vol% of H2O; time on stream, 5 h. Temperature was found to play an important role on product distribution and on the extent and nature of coke deposition. At low temperature (275 °C), water strongly competed with ethylene for Brönsted acid sites, suppressing oligomer condensation and thus, reducing total coke content. At intermediate temperature (325 °C), water favored hydrogen transfer and aromatization reactions to some extent, leading to a decrease in soft/hard coke distribution without altering the overall coke content. At high temperature (375 °C), although competitive adsorption of water was less pronounced, the moderation of strong acid sites suppressed aromatization (limiting the formation of hydrocarbons up to C7). These results suggest the interest in co-feeding H2O with the aim of controlling the product distribution and coke deactivation, showing promising prospects for process scale-up.