PARTIAL HYDROGENATION OF TOLUENE OVER A RUTHENIUM CATALYST - A MODEL TREATMENT OF A DEACTIVATION PROCESS

Hydrogenation of toluene to methylcyclohexene and methylcyclohexane wa s performed over a commercial 5% Ru/act. charcoal catalyst. The reacti on was strongly affected by deactivation of the catalyst. The complete reaction model was examined together with a number of its simplified versions regarding their ability to fit experimental data. On the basi s of the regression analysis results it was shown that methylcyclohexe ne could be thought as the main source of the strongly and irreversibl y adsorbed surface deposits responsible for activity decrease of the c atalyst. Direct transformation of toluene to methylcyclohexane was fou nd to be insignificant. On the other hand substantial role of dispropo rtionation of methylcyclohexene was proved.