Research progress on aromatization of C6+ n-alkanes

Abstract

Conversion of saturated straight-chain alkanes generated in the deep desulfurization process of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline and the coal-to-oil processes into aromatics via alkane aromatization is an important non-petroleum route for the preparation of aromatics that effectively improves the quality of oil. The aromatization technology of C₂–C₅ light hydrocarbons is relatively mature and has been used in industry. However, for the aromatization of ${\text{C}}_{\text{6}}^{\text{+}}$ n-alkanes, the aromatics yield is still very low due to the complex reaction process and the competition of various elemental reactions. In addition, the catalysts usually suffer from rapid deactivation. In this work, we summarize the recent advances in the aromatization of ${\text{C}}_{\text{6}}^{\text{+}}$ n-alkanes. The reaction mechanism of aromatization of ${\text{C}}_{\text{6}}^{\text{+}}$ alkanes and the effects of the dispersion of metal sites, electronic state, and acidity, morphology and pore structure of the support on the catalytic performance are discussed in detail.