The influence of nature of coke on kinetics of catalyst regeneration

Experiments have been carried out to study the effects of coke composition on combustion parameters and burn-off time in the regeneration of coke-deactivated supported alumina catalyst. At high temperatures, results showed that the combustion behaviour is dependent on coke type as oxidizable and reduceable coke profiles versus time showed different trends. The curves of coke burn-off profiles were found to depend on the initial amount of coke deposited and on the oxygen concentration in the regenerating gas mixture. The higher the oxygen concentration, the shorter the time it takes to burn the same amount of coke. The high temperature combustion was assumed to follow the unreacted core model on the basis of which a model relating various parameters in coke deactivation was derived and the various dependencies demonstrated graphically for the different coke types. Oxidizable coke data fitted the linear model equation adequately while reducible coke data did not-another evidence of the difference in the kinetics of removal. Results further show a direct proportionality relationship between amount of coke accumulated under the same conditions and amount removed, confirming that the type of coke deposited is a function of accumulation conditions.