Abstract:

Exo-tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene (exo-THDCPD) is an important high-energy density fuel that can significantly enhance the performance of aircrafts. It is generally produced from the isomerization of endo-THDCPD with environmentally unsafe AlCl₃ as catalyst. In this work, zeolites were used as catalyst to develop a green process for the production of exo-THDCPD. Among the zeolites tested, Y type zeolites with larger pores were most active. HUSY was more efficient than HSSY due to the abundance of weak acidic sites. Loading of fluorine could suppress the medium acid and increase the weak acid, promoting the selectivity to exo-THDCPD. The optimal reaction conditions were as following: 6. 6% F/HSSY as catalyst, temperature 195℃, catalyst percentage 20%. In this case, the conversion of endo-THDCPD was 94. 0% and the selectivity to exo-THDCPD was 98. 4%. The deactivated catalyst could be effectively regenerated via calcination at 550℃.