(1) Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3RA, United Kingdom
Abstract:
13C DEPT-MRI is used to provide the first spatial mapping of alkene isomerisation and hydrogenation during an alkene hydrogenation reaction occurring within a trickle-bed reactor. The implementation of a pulse sequence combining the spatial resolution of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pulse sequence with a 13C DEPT magnetic resonance spectroscopy pulse sequence enables spatially resolved 13C spectra to be recorded of natural abundance 13C species. Observation of the 13C nucleus, which has a much larger chemical shift range than the 1H nucleus, provides spectra from which direct identification of the products of isomerisation and hydrogenation is achieved. This technique is illustrated with respect to the hydrogenation of 1-octene over a1 wt% Pd/Al2O3 catalyst. In this preliminary study we demonstrate the ability of this technique to identify the effect of changing the hydrogen flow rate on the evolution of isomerisation and hydrogenation processes occurring along the length of the bed.
