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between their acid-base characters and ping petroleum refining and petrochemical
catalytic activities. processes and related catalysts. Under
Professor Li’s supervision, many hydro-
I. MATSUURA treating catalysts have been developed in
recent years, of which eight have been put
Changes in Personnel at the State into commercial use. Among them, a new
Key Laboratory of Catalysis (China) hydrotreating catalyst, RN-l, was awarded
the “Golden Prize” by the Chinese Patent
Office and the World Intellectual Property
1991 saw a change in the executive
Organization in 1989. Professor Li is at
personnel of the State Key Laboratory of
present group leader of the Catalyst &
Catalysis (SKLC) of the Chinese Academy
Molecular Sieve Section of the Refining
of Sciences (CAS) which is affiliated with
Society of the Chinese Petroleum Society.
the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
(DICP). The CAS appointed Professor Xu
E. MIN
Yide as the Director of the SKLC. Professor
Xu nominated Professor Xiong Guoxing as
the Deputy Director and this was approved Examples of Catalytic Distillation
by the DICP.
The term of office of the First Academic
MTBE Synthesis
Committee of the SKLC also expired in
In a recent European patent application
1991. The Second Academic Committee,
(466-954-Al), L.A. Smith, Jr. describes a
nominated by the SKLC and appointed by
catalyst system for carrying out chemical
the CAS, took office in December. The
reactions in a reaction-distillation column.
Committee is composed of eighteen mem-
The catalyst system comprises a plurality
bers and includes four members of CAS:
of closed off pockets containing a particu-
Min Enze, Cai Qirui, Peng Xiaoyi and Guo
late catalytic material. Specifically, the in-
Xiexian. The first meeting of this Committee
vention relates to the separation of iso-al-
was held from 20th to 22nd December
kenes from a feed stream containing a
1991 in Dalian. At the above meeting, Pro-
mixture of an iso-alkene and the corre-
fessor Guo Xiexian was elected Chairman
sponding normal alkene. The invention
and Professors Xie Youchang and Xin Qin
can be viewed as a method for preparing
were elected Vice-Chairmen.
MTBE by contacting a mixture of isobu-
tylene and n-butene with methanol over a
Other Personal News from China fixed bed cation exchange resin contained
within a cloth supported by wire mesh in-
Professor Li Dadong was promoted last side a distillation column. Alternatively, it
winter from Vice President to President of can be characterized as a method of pre-
the Chinese Research Institute of Petro- paring isobutylene by contacting MTBE
leum Processing (RIPP). RIPP, founded in with the same catalyst resin in the packina.
1956, is a comprehensive research organ- The cloth is made of cotton, linen, fibre-
ization under the auspices of the China glass or Teflon. In the prior art, the control
Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC). of temperature was a problem which is
One major research field of RIPP is develo- avoided by this catalytic distillation proce-

applied catalysis A: General Volume 87 No. 2 - 19 August 1992

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dure. The dimer is formed on the catalyst palladium in conjunction with other wash-
bed, the lower boiling n-butene is fraction- coat support materials exhibited relatively
ated away from the catalyst bed and good three-way catalyst characteristics
removed overhead while the high boiling compared to a Pt/Rh catalyst. They
dimer drops to the lower portion of the showed that a Pt/Pd catalyst can be made
column. to perform more like a Rh-containing cata-
lyst than previously demonstrated. A sy-
nergism between platinum and a ceria sup-
Alkylation of Aromatics Containing Re-
port resulted in stabilization of each com-
finery Streams
ponent. The addition of palladium to the
CR Hsieh and A.J. Gloyn of Chevron
support gave a highly active three-way
Research and Technology report in a re-
catalyst in the absence of sulphur; the
cent US Patent (5 082 990) a process for
catalyst is temporarily poisoned by sul-
reducing the concentration of light aroma-
phur.
tics in a refinery stream by catalytic alkyla-
tion within a distillation column. Alkylation
Carbonylation Process and Catalysts
of the benzene within the distillation col-
umn permits one to reduce the environ-
F.E. Paulik, A. Hershman, W.R. Knox,
mental impact of benzene while both im-
R.G. Schultz and J.F. Roth describe in US
proving the octane and the yield of ga-
Patent No. 5 003 104 (now assigned to B.P.
soline. Typical alkylation catalysts such as
Chemicals, Ltd.) a process for the carbo-
ZSM5, Beta or Y-type zeolites are used to
nylation of a carbonylatable reactant such
treat a blending component or refinery
as an alkyl ester, or a dialkyl ether. The
stream during the refinery process itself,
catalyst is a rhodium compound with
using an alkene-containing stream, within
iodide and lithium as promoters. This is a
the distillation column, Comparative exam-
further extension of the elegant Monsanto
ples illustrate the superiority of zeolitic over
work on acetic acid synthesis in the con-
non-zeolitic catalysts in the catalytic alky-
tinuation of a long list of patents in this
lation of benzene under operating condi-
regard. Broad examples of rhodium cata-
tions (22 wt.-% benzene in reformate feed
lyst ligands and promoters are given.
at 43O”F, 200 psig, 1 LHSV, propenelben-
Preferred catalysts are typically
zene mol ratio = 1). They argue that alky-
[Rh(C0)2121-,[Rh(CO)l41- or [Rh(CWlz;
lation by catalytic distillation is preferred to
the preferred temperature is -175°C and
fixed-bed catalytic alkylation (which oper-
the CO pressures range from 1 to 15,000
ates at higher conversions) because distil-
psig. While many of their examples deal
lation/alkylation can be performed under
with acetic acid, the authors also provide
lower pressure conditions,
specific examples of the carbonylation of
diols (such as 1-4 butanediol), epoxides,
Non-rhodium Three-way Auto Catalyst and THF.
J.C. Dettling and Y-K. Lui of Engelhard
Corporation have reported in a recent SAE
Technical Paper (series No. 920094) from
the International Congress and Exposition,
Detroit, MI, (Feb. 1992) that platinum and

applied catalysis A: General Volume 87 No. 2 - 19 August 1992