Synthesis of jet fuel through the oligomerization of butenes on zeolite catalysts

In this study, the oligomerization of a butene mixture composed of 1-butene, cis-2-butene and trans-2-butene over several types of zeolites in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor at an elevated pressure was studied to produce hydrocarbons in the jet fuel range (C8–C16). Three types of zeolites, HZSM-5, Hβ and HY, were compared to evaluate the performance during the synthesis of jet fuel via the oligomerization of the aforementioned butene mixture. Compared to HY and Hβ, HZSM-5 showed a very stable butene conversion rate with high selectivity to jet-fuel-range hydrocarbon, which could be attributed to high resistance to coke resulting from the pore structure. HZSM-5 (50) shows the best quantitative conversion performance and yield for jet fuel for a time-on-stream of up to 6 h. It was also noted that the branched-to-linear hydrocarbon ratio reached 8.7 over the HZSM-5 (50) catalyst, which is beneficial to improve the cold properties of jet fuel. The present study reveals that HZSM-5 (50) is a potential catalyst for jet fuel synthesis through the oligomerization of butene mixture, exhibiting high stability and a high yield.