Catalytic conversion of 2-chloropropane in oxidizing conditions: A FT-IR and flow reactor study

The conversion of 2-chloropropane (2CP) in the presence of oxygen has been investigated over a number of oxide catalysts. Mn oxide and Mn containing oxides are deactivated as combustion catalysts by chlorine, but are active in converting 2CP into propene and HCl. VWTi SCR catalysts are also very active in converting 2CP into propene, and, if vanadium content is relatively high, they also catalyse the burning of the resulting propene into CO and CO2. Acid catalysts such as alumina, silica-alumina and ZSM5 zeolite also catalyse the dehydrochlorination of CP to propene. However, HZSM5 is rapidly deactivated by coking. On silica alumina, dehydrochlorination occurs selectively at low temperature. FT-IR data and preliminary kinetic studies allowed to propose a reaction mechanism where an irreversible and fast conversion of 2CP into 2-propoxides is a key reaction step. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.