Investigation of Solid Acid Catalysts for Alkylation of Isobutane-Butene Process

The Automotive exhaust emission is the predominant source of air pollution. With the increasingly stringent environmental protection requirements, the standards of gasoline are constantly upgrading via reducing the content of olefins, sulfur and aromatics. Alkylation of isobutane with butene is one of the most important ways for production of gasoline with high octane number. Although, the isobutane with olefins alkylation refinery process based on liquid acid catalysts such as sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid has been commercially successful but the use of these catalysts in the process of alkylation has environmental, health and high operatin costs problems. Solid acid catalysts especially zeolites due to their high operability and lower cost of equipment, no environmental problems and outstanding structural properties, are more suitable candidates for improving the isobutane/butene process. So, replacing these catalysts with solid acid catalysts is one of the most important research goals in the field of catalysts.