Catalytic incineration of acrylonitrile with platinum supported on Al2O3

The catalytic decomposition of acrylonitrile with catalysts was investigated in a bench scale fixed bed reactor in this study. Two catalysts, including Pt/gamma-Al2O3 and Cr2O3/alpha-Al2O3, were tested to study their catalytic activity in the complete oxidation of acrylonitrile. The results show that the Pt/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst has better performance. The operating parameters such as operating temperature, acrylonitrile concentration, space velocity, and oxygen concentration were conducted in a series of experiments on the Pt/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst. The results indicate that decomposition efficiency increases with temperature and oxygen concentration and decreases with the increases of space velocity and acrylonitrile concentration. With a regression model, the operating temperature is the most effective parameter on the decomposition of acrylonitrile. Carbon dioxide is the dominant product and carbon monoxide is an insignificant product of the decomposition of acrylonitrile. Material balance on carbon is good for the experiments. According to the BET and elemental analyzer analysis, major factors that cause the deactivation effect may result from nitrogen poisoning and carbon masking on the catalyst surface, especially at lower temperatures.