Investigation on catalytic distillation dehydrogenation of perhydro-benzyltoluene: Reaction kinetics, modeling and process analysis

Catalytic distillation is an effective and important technology for low-temperature dehydrogenation of perhydrobenzyltoluene (H12-BT). However, current researches have unfortunately failed to comprehensively understand the reaction and separation processes, hindering the broader application of catalytic distillation dehydrogenation technology. Therefore, in the study, a comprehensive dehydrogenation reaction kinetic model that accounts for the influence of the intermediate H6-BT was established firstly. Subsequently, the vapor-liquid equilibrium data for the binary systems H12-BT + H6-BT and H6-BT + H0-BT was estimated by utilizing the UNIFAC model, so as to obtain the azeotropes. By developing a modified catalytic distillation model, the catalytic distillation dehydrogenation process was examined. Our exploration revealed the existence of an optimal degree of dehydrogenation value, namely 0.8, within the catalytic distillation dehydrogenation process, yielding an approximate 23.8 % reduction in unit H2 production cost in comparison to the fully dehydrogenation case. Our findings contribute valuable insights that have the potential to promote the overall development of the hydrogen energy economy.