Reduction of aromatics cracking on alumina by pyridine adsorption

When γ-alumina is used in catalytic reactions, undesirable side reactions such as cracking, isomerization and coke formation always exist. These give undesired products and lead to catalyst deactivation. Aromatics' cracking was carried over untreated alumina and pyridine pretreated alumina. BTX traces in nitrogen fed over packed beds of untreated alumina and pyridine-treated alumina for the same reaction conditions and for the same duration of time. The experiments produced fixed carbon in spent catalyst 40% less in the pyridine pretreated alumina compared to untreated alumina, indicating that aromatics cracking were reduced by the pyridine adsorption. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 230th ACS National Meeting (Washington, DC 8/28/2005-9/1/2005).