Surface Composition–Performance Relationships in Pt‐Re/γ‐Al₂O₃ for Catalytic Alkane Reforming and Aromatization

Abstract Catalytic naphtha reforming is a well‐established energy‐intensive process for producing high‐octane gasoline, typically using Pt‐Re/γ‐Al 2 O 3 catalysts in fixed‐bed reactors at 450–520 °C and 1.5–3.5 MPa. Despite its long history, understanding the metallic phase of these catalysts remains challenging. In this work, we synthesized a series of Pt‐Re/γ‐Al 2 O 3 catalysts whose relative Pt/(Pt + Re) molar fractions ( ζ ) and total metallic loadings ( ω ) were varied after designing a statistical factorial experiment. The goal was to assess the physicochemical properties of the metallic phase of the catalysts and to establish how the above variables influence catalytic performance in the reforming of model naphtha (50 wt % n ‐heptane in n ‐pentane). We found evidence of the formation of an alloy between platinum and rhenium. Data showed that within this alloy platinum may be withdrawing electrons from rhenium. Such a type of interaction seems to prevail during n ‐heptane reforming. Synergistic effects between both metals were found for the synthesized catalysts almost in all instances of the composition of the metallic phase. Finally, a catalyst with ζ = 0.8 and ω = 1.2 demonstrated a temperature reduction of 18 °C for n ‐heptane aromatization compared to an industrial benchmark, suggesting potential for optimizing catalyst formulations to improve energy efficiency.