Ammoxidation of ethane to acetonitrile. IV: substantial differences between Y and dealuminated Y zeolite Original Research Article

Earlier work by us described a group of cobalt ion exchanged zeolites which showed effective performance for the ammoxidation of ethane with NH3/O2 to acetonitrile. A variety of multidimensional 10 and 12 ring zeolites were the most effective, however, initial efforts using Co-Y zeolite did not display the selectivity and activity one might have expected. The importance of dealumination of Y zeolite is now discussed for the ammoxidation of ethane to acetonitrile in giving much higher activity and selectivity. Process data under a variety of conditions are correlated with physical characterization of these catalysts by FTIR, NMR, and O2 porosity. Catalyst life studies with these dealuminated catalysts indicate no appreciable decay after more than 100 h of time-on-stream.