Kinetic modeling of 1-decene oligomerization to synthetic fuels and base oil over tungstated-zirconia catalyst

The liquid phase oligomerization reaction of 1-decene to produce dimers and trimers was performed in a semi-batch autoclave reactor over a tungstated-zirconia catalyst at different reaction temperatures. While dimers can be used as a synthetic transportation fuel, trimers and higher compounds can be used as a base oil which can be blended with additives to make synthetic base oil. The conversion of 1-decene increased from 9 to 70% as the reaction temperature was increased from 423 to 483 K. At 483 K, product compositions after 11 h consisted of 50% dimers and 23% trimers. Apparent activation energies for dimerization and trimerization were found to be 21.0 ± 0.5 and 33.0 ± 0.6 kJ/mol, respectively. Kinetic interpretation has been made by studying the kinetic and equilibrium constants. The results of the oligomerization of 1-decene suggest that two active sites are responsible for dimerization. Trimerization proceeds through a combination of dimer with another monomer involving three active sites. According to the mathematical equation, an increase in active sites required for both reactions at higher temperature is necessary to compensate for catalyst deactivation.