HANOI UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY
OIL AND GAS FACULTY
DEPARTMENT OF OIL REFINING AND PETROCHEMISTRY




CATALYTIC ISOMERIZATION

Students: Nguyễn Phúc Sơn CTTT 10210108
Dương Tiến Anh CTTT 10210112

Advance program – 1st course – 3rd year

Super vision: Prof. Phạm Xuân Núi

Hà Nội, May, 2013
CONTENTS

1. HEAT ENGINES – OCTANE RATING AND THE PROBLEM 3
1.1 Heat Engine (internal combustion engine) 3
1.2 Octane rating 4
1.3 Octane rating effects 4
2. ISOMERIZATION 5
2.1 Basic concept 5
2.2 Classification 6
2.3 Properties of n-paraffin Isomerization. 6
2.4 Acid – catalyzed Isomerization 7
2.4.1 Mechanism 8
2.4.2 Properties 10
2.4.3 Application of Acid - catalized Isomerization. 10
2.5 Bi-functional metal-acid catalyzed Isomerization. 11
2.5.1 mechanism 11
2.5.2 Properties 11
2.5.3 Application of bi-functional metal-acid catalyzed Isomerization 13
3. TECHNOLOGY OF LIGHT NAPTHA ISOMERIZATION 15
3.1 Comparative characteristics of Isomerization Technologies 15
3.2 Isomerization Technology IsomAlk-2 with SI-2 Catalyst 17
3.3 All variants of Isomalk-2™ process scheme have been realized 20
4. CONCLUSION 23
REFERENCES 24

1. HEAT ENGINES – OCTANE RATING AND THE PROBLEM


1.1 Heat Engine (internal combustion engine)

Heat engines,including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines (such as steam engines) burn a fuel to create heat, which then creates motion.

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel (generally, fossil fuel) occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and high pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to components of the engine, such as the pistons or turbine blades or a nozzle, and by moving it over a distance, generates useful mechanical energy.




Figure 1: Four – stroke cycle of an internal combustion engine.

Internal combustion engines are widely used in vehicles and portable machinery like: cars, motorbikes, boats ….


1.2 Octane rating

Octane rating or Octane number is a standard measure of the performance of a motor or aviation fuel. The higher the Octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating. In broad terms, fuels with a higher Octane rating are used in high-compression engines that generally have higher performance.
There are many measurement methods to get the Octane rating, the three most important ones are: RON (Research Octane Number) , MON (Motor Octane Number) and AKI (Anti-Knock Index)

1.3 Octane rating effects

Higher Octane ratings correlate to higher activation energies: This being the amount of applied energy required to initiate combustion. Since higher Octane fuels have higher activation energy requirements, it is less likely that a given compression will cause uncontrolled ignition, otherwise known as auto ignition or detonation.

A fuel with a higher Octane rating is less likely to auto-ignition and can withstand a greater rise in temperature during the compression stroke of an internal combustion engine without auto-igniting, thus allowing more power to be extracted from the engine. If during the compression stroke the air / fuel mix reaches a temperature greater than the auto-ignition temperature of the fuel, the fuel self or auto-ignites. When auto-ignition occurs (before the piston reaches the top of its travel) the up-rising piston is then attempting to squeeze the rapidly expanding (exploding) fuel charge. This will usually destroy an engine quickly if allowed to continue.
Besides, burning fuel with a lower octane rating than that for which the engine is designed often results in a reduction of power output and efficiency.


( PROBLEM: How to increase Octane number for fuels so that we can avoid the engines knocking and increase the efficiency of the engines.



2. ISOMERIZATION

2.1 Basic concept

In chemistry, Isomerization is the process by which one molecule is transformed into another molecule which has exactly the same formula but different structures.




Figure 2: RON numbers for some isomers.

As can be seen in figure 2, the normal – Alkanes have the RON numbers smaller than that of its isomer branched – Alkanes. The more branched the isomer gets, the higher RON number it has.

( The key to the Problem: We can increase Octane number for fuels by transforming them into their isomers with more branches through Isomerization.

Every Isomerization processes is fundamentally