Alkylation of Thiophenic Compounds with Olefins and its Kinetics over MCM-41 Supported Phosphoric Acid in FCC Gasoline

The alkylation of thiophenic compounds with olefins in real fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline was carried out over three kinds of acidic catalysts: HY zeolite, phosphoric acid supported on both kieselguhr and purely siliceous MCM-41 zeolite. The results showed that the MCM-41 supported phosphoric acid catalyst was the most promising to be utilized in the reaction in terms of its activity and stability. Based on its excellent catalytic performance, apparent kinetic models for alkylation of the major thiophenic sulfides were proposed, thus allowing use of the simulation in reaction distillation (RD) technology. Furthermore, numerical regression led to kinetic parameters with narrow spans, suggesting that the proposed models satisfactorily simulate the sulfides removal under the suggested reaction conditions.