Selective oligomerization of isobutylene in mixed C4 catalyzed by supported Fe(NO3)3/β catalyst.

BACKGROUND: Methyl tert‐butyl ether (referred to as MTBE) is harmful to the environment and hence its use is limited in China. To avoid the waste of isobutylene as MTBE raw material and improve the utilization rate of isobutylene in mixed C4 fraction, supported Fe(NO3)3/β molecular sieve catalysts with different active components were prepared by the equal volume impregnation method. The catalysts were analyzed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TG), Temperature programmed desorption of NH3, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis and scanning electron microscopy, and the catalytic performance of catalysts with mixed C4 fractions as raw materials and different active component loadings for selective oligomerization of isobutylene was investigated in a fixed bed reactor. RESULTS: The results show that the catalyst has the best catalytic performance when the active component loading was 6%, the reaction temperature was 60 °C, the reaction pressure was 1 MPa and the reaction space velocity was 1.5 h−1. CONCLUSION: The conversion rate of isobutylene was >90%, the selectivity of C8 olefin was ≈80% and there was almost no loss of n‐butene. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]