Butane isomerization over platinum promoted sulfated zirconia catalysts

The isomerization of n-butane to i-butane has been studied at 11 bar in a microflow reactor over sulfated zirconia (SZ) and platinum containing sulfated zirconia (Pt-SZ) catalysts. In the presence of H₂ a significantly higher temperature is required for isomerization over SZ than in its absence. The rate over SZ is higher with n-butane containing 33 ppm butene as an impurity than with a feed that is pre-equilibrated over a Pt/SiO₂ catalyst to a much lower butene content. Over Pt-SZ the reaction rate is higher, because any butene consumed is rapidly regenerated; the conversion is perfectly stable in 83 h runs, selectivity to i-butane is 95%; i-pentane and propane are the main byproducts. The activation energy is 53 kJ mol⁻¹. Upon increasing the pressure of H₂ from 1.1 to 6.6 bar, the reaction rate was found to decrease in a perfectly reversible fashion. Kinetic analysis reveals that the reaction order is negative in H₂ (−1.1 to −1.3 depending on the temperature) and positive in n-butane (+ 1.3 to +1.6), indicating that the mechanism of this isomerization is intermolecular: butene is formed and reacts with adsorbed C₄-carbenium ions to adsorbed C₈ intermediates which isomerize and undergo β-fission to fragments with i-C₄ structure. This mechanism is confirmed over Pt-SZ by isotopic labelling experiments, though at much lower pressure, using double labelled ¹³CH₃---CH₂---CH₂---¹³CH₃. The primary reaction product consists of i-butane molecules, containing zero, one, two, three and four ¹³C atoms in a binomial distribution.