Thermodynamic and kinetic studies of aromatization of propane over H-ZSM-5 in the presence of methanol

Herein, the thermodynamics and kinetics for the coupling aromatization of propane and methanol and effects of reaction conditions are systematically investigated on H-ZSM-5. It is shown that aromatization is significantly enhanced along with effective inhibition of coking on catalyst at reaction conditions of 440 °C, P(propane and methanol) = 80 kPa, WHSVCH2 = 2.1 h−1 and methanol/propane = 0.7 (mol/mol) as a result of alteration of propane conversion mechanism from monomolecular protolytic pathway to bimolecular hydrogen transfer pathway, which is substantiated by the variation of apparent activation energy of propane conversion and the dependence of apparent reaction order on the reaction temperature and framework aluminum (acid) content in H-ZSM-5. In addition, the effects of different reactive intermediates generated from methanol on the propane activation were systematically analyzed in detail from a kinetic point of view for the first time.