Kinetic Model Development of the Oligomerization of High Olefin Containing Hydrocarbon By-products to Clean Engine Fuels on Amberlyst Catalyst

Nowadays, since the demand for engine fuels is continuously changing, in petroleum refineries, increasing the flexibility of gasoline/middle distillate is still an important issue, e.g. by oligomerizing light olefins (3–6 carbon atoms). The aim of our work was to develop a valid kinetic model based on the extended Eley-Rideal mechanism to describe the oligomerization of the olefin content of light naphtha by fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) on an ion-exchange resin. Experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed tubular reactor at temperatures of between 80 and 130 °C with liquid hourly space velocities (LHSV) of between 0.5 and 2.0 1/h using Amberlyst® 15 as a catalyst. The oligomerization process was characterized based on the composition of products determined by gas chromatography. The conversion of olefins and the selectivity of the oligomerization reactions forming C8-11 and C12+ hydrocarbons (C8-11 and C12+ selectivity; unit: relative %) were dependent on factors that determine the reactor performance in order to identify the kinetic model parameters. Given that the developed reactor model described the measured data reasonably accurately, it can be used in terms of the optimal design of an industrial oligomerization reactor.