Gas Phase Oxidation of Toluene and Ethyl Acetate over Proton and Cobalt Exchanged ZSM-5 Nano Catalysts- Experimental Study and ANN Modeling

Activities of nanostructure HZSM-5 and Co-ZSM-5 catalysts (with different Co-loading) for catalytic conversion of ethyl acetate and toluene were studied The catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method and were characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, TEM and ICP-AES techniques. Catalytic studies were carried out inside a U-shaped fixed bed reactor under atmospheric pressure and different temperatures Toluene showed lower reactivity than ethyl acetate for conversion on Co-ZSM-5 catalysts. The effect of Co loading on conversion was prominent at temperatures below 400 degrees C and 450 degrees C for ethyl acetate and toluene respectively In a binary mixture of organic compounds, toluene and ethyl acetate showed an inhibition and promotional behaviors respectively, in which the conversion of toluene was decreased at temperatures above 350 degrees C Inhibition effect or water vapor was negligible at temperatures above 400 degrees C. An artificial neural networks model was developed to predict the conversion efficiency of ethyl acetate on Co-ZSM-5 catalysts based on experimental data. Predicted results showed a good agreement with experimental results. ANN modeling predicted the order of studied variable effects on ethyl acetate conversion, which was as follows reaction temperature (50%) > ethyl acetate inlet concentration (25 085%) > content or Co loading (24 915%).