A Study on the Effect of Support on the Catalytic Activity of OMS-2 for Oxidation of Toluene in Gas Phase

Abstract

In this study, the complete oxidation of an aromatic hydrocarbon compound such as toluene into carbon dioxide and water was carried out in a continuous fixed bed reactor. OMS-2 material synthesized by the refluxing method was used as the catalyst. To reduce the cost of the catalyst, various support materials were employed for supporting the OMS-2 catalyst. The effects of supports (i.e., bentonite, kaolinite, and alumina) and their contents on the catalytic activity of OMS-2 for the oxidation of toluene were investigated. Among the supports, bentonite with Al:Si ratio of 1:2 was the best material with the lowest temperature that reached 100% of toluene conversion at 260 oC. Therefore, 20%OMS-2/bentonite could be a suitable catalyst with high efficiency but low cost for catalytic oxidation of toluene and other organic compounds in the gas phase.