Optimizing hydrogen-driven n-pentane isomerization over Pt-doped fibrous ZSM-5

This study focuses on developing and optimizing Pt-doped fibrous ZSM-5 catalysts for n-pentane hydroisomerization. The catalysts demonstrated improved Pt dispersion and surface area through comprehensive characterization, particularly in Pt/HFZSM-5. Catalytic evaluations revealed that Pt/HFZSM-5 exhibited remarkable hydroisomerization performance (91.9 % of conversion), surpassing commercial ZSM-5, attributed to the enhancement in physicochemical attributes like high surface area, moderate acid sites and active Pt dispersion. Notably, under optimized conditions (reaction temperature: 323.6 °C, treatment temperature: 453.7 °C, F/W ratio: 498.7 mL/g.min), Pt/HFZSM-5 achieved an impressive 92.6 % isomerization yield, signifying a substantial enhancement in catalytic activity. Mechanistic insights highlighted the pivotal role of acid sites along with hydrogen activation in hydroisomerization. The utilization of statistical modeling, response surface analysis, and experimental validation underscored the accuracy of the predictive model and its alignment with the observed outcomes (with 2.1 % variance). This work contributes to developing high-performance hydroisomerization catalysts and advances understanding of the underlying reaction mechanisms.