Abstract
This work reports the results of experimental and theoretical investigation of toluene oxidation on different metal oxide based catalysts (manganese oxide, MnOx, mixed manganese-iron oxide, MnFe, perovskite-type manganese oxide, LaMnO3 and commercial Pt-Al2O3 catalyst). Particular attention was devoted to single and mixed manganese based oxides and ceria based materials as alternatives to conventionally used noble metal containing catalysts.
Toluene oxidation was performed under steady-state conditions in an integral fixed bed reactor operating over a wider range of reaction temperatures and at various space times. The influence of reaction variables on the rate of toluene oxidation was examined using the simple first-order kinetic model and the one-dimensional (1D) pseudo-homogeneous model to describe the reaction system. The proposed model was verified comparing the theoretical predictions with the experimental laboratory results.
The results of catalytic tests indicated that the mixed manganese-iron oxide (MnFe) exhibited remarkable catalytic activity for the toluene oxidation, almost comparable with the activity of the commercial Pt-Al2O3. The reaction temperature T50 corresponding to 50% of the toluene conversion was observed at 419 K for the MnFe oxide and at 405 K for the Pt-Al2O3. A very good agreement of experimental data with the proposed 1D model was obtained. Based on the shape of the light-off curve and the values of the apparent activation energies, which decreased from 120.36 kJ/mol to 16.88 kJ/mol with reaction temperature increase, it was concluded that the reaction rate was probably limited by the mass transfer, no matter the relatively small catalyst particle size fraction employed in this study (315 - 400µm).
