Kinetic modeling and study of H-ZSM-5 coated silicon carbide ceramic foam in toluene methylation to produce xylene

This work deals with the toluene alkylation reaction with methanol catalyzed by commercial H-ZSM-5 coated over SiC foam. The main product is xylene which is a well-known building block of many petrochemicals. The foam has been purchased and H-ZSM-5 was coated on it by dip-coating method. The coated foam was used as a catalyst block to study the reaction of toluene with methanol. The effect of variation of different reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, mole ratio of reactants, W/F ratio, partial pressure, feed rate, number of ceramic block coated with catalyst was investigated. Effect of regeneration of the catalyst has also been studied. In addition, comparison of conversion with pellet and coated one was also studied to confirm the usefulness of ceramic foam as catalyst support to get the best conversion to xylene production.