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 $400^{\circ}C$ and $450^{\circ}C$ 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 $350^{\circ}C$. Inhibition effect of water vapor was negligible at temperatures above $400^{\circ}C$. 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 of Co loading (24.915%).