Hydroconversion of Methyl-Cyclohexane on a Bifunctional Catalyst

The hydroconversion of methylcyclohexane has been studied on a Pt/USY catalyst under hydrocracking conditions. Methylcyclohexane is firstly isomerized in dimethylcyclopentanes and then is transformed in Cη alcanes by a first C-C bond breakage. A second C-C bond breakage of the C₇ alcanes yields to cracked products C₃ and C₄. It is shown that the second C-C bond breakage occurs very rapidly and so, the C₇ alcanes cannot be obtained with a high selectivity. The distribution of the C₇ products shows that all the isomers are at the thermodynamic equilibrium.