Experimental study of the tail end selective hydrogenation of steam cracking C2-C3 mixture

Diolefins and alkynes in C₂-C₃ olefins streams can be selectively hydrogenated to produce high-purity mono-olefins for downstream polyolefin production. The aim of this paper is on the experimental study of the tail end selective hydrogenation of a stream cracking C₂-C₃ cut, over two different palladium/alumina catalysts. A series of integral reactor type experiments were performed and the integral method was used for the kinetic analysis. The minimization of the objective function was made by the Marquardt algorithm for multiple response and the continuity equation set integrated by fourth order Runge-Kutta technique. The comparison between experimental and observed values of the acetylene, ethylene, ethane, MAPD, propylene and propane molar fraction in the hydrocarbon mixture, which were used for the minimization, confirm the suitability of the fit.