Understanding activity and deactivation in catalytic cracking by measurement of adsorption during reaction

The conversion and selectivity that is obtained in cat cracking results directly from a combination and interaction of very fast and non-uniform catalyst/oil contacting, a complex catalyst surface, a strong role of competitive adsorption and shape-selective diffusion, a broad range of feed components, and a catalyst whose activity is rapidly changing. Thus, understanding about fundamental mechanisms of cat cracking must fit within this contacting framework in order to be relevant to cat cracking. Clearly, performance of fundamental research requires some compromises in terms of experimental complexity. This paper presents a new approach that inckudes fewer compromises than was previously possible.