Oxidation of Toluene in Waste Gas Streams Using Mesoporous Ti-Hexagonal Mesoporous Silica

Various mesoporous catalysts with titanium loadings between 0.5 and 4 Ti wt.?% and surface areas between 600 and 1,600 m2/g were synthesized using the molecular designed dispersion technique. These catalysts were tested using toluene oxidation in a fixed bed reactor at temperatures between 300 and 550°C. The reaction products were found to be CO2 and CO with selectivity towards CO2 above 80% for all catalysts. The catalytic activity of the catalysts increases with titanium loading. The total conversion at 550°C was not affected by the textural porosity, but increased textural porosity did significantly reduce the ignition temperature by up to 50°C. The Thiele modulus was calculated to be much less than one for all these materials indicating that the reaction rate is not diffusion limited.