Catalyst for Saturation of Alkynes and Diolefins
The catalyst is designed for the complete saturation of trace alkynes and diolefins through selective hydrogenation, converting these compounds to butenes while minimizing the loss of olefinicity. The typical feedstock includes Raffinate I and Raffinate II C4 hydrocarbon streams (polishing treatment). The objective is to pretreat these fractions to meet the specifications required for downstream processes such as alkylate production in refineries, propylene production via metathesis, synthetic
rubber manufacturing, and fuel additive production.
The catalyst is often employed in the pretreatment stage prior to metathesis process because it also performs the selective isomerization of double bond positions in C4-olefins, catalysing the conversion of butene-1 to butene-2, which then reacts with ethylene to produce propylene.