CRACKING OF N-HEXANE AND N-BUTANE OVER SAPO5, MGAPO5 AND COAPO5

The acid site distribution and the catalytic activity of SAPO5, MgAPO5 and CoAPO5 samples for cracking of light alkanes was studied. The aci d strength of all samples was found to be similar to that of faujasite s, that of CoAPO5 being somewhat weaker than that of the other samples . The catalytic activity for cracking of n-hexane and n-butane was nea rly identical for most of the SAPO5 samples investigated. For n-hexane cracking, one of the SAPO5 samples also showed a significantly higher activity than the other SAPO5 samples. The catalytic activity was thr ee times higher for CoAPO5 and MgAPO5. Their higher activity is not du e to a higher strength of the acid sites, but was concluded to be caus ed by a higher contribution of the bimolecular cracking mechanism.