When magnetic catalyst meets magnetic reactor: etherification of FCC light gasoline as an example.

The application of elaborately designed magnetic catalysts has long been limited to ease their separation from the products only. In this paper, we for the first time employed a magnetic sulphonated poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) resin catalyst on a magnetically stabilized-bed (MSB) reactor to enhance the etherification of fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) light gasoline, one of the most important reactions in petroleum refining industry. We demonstrated that the catalytic performance of the magnetic acid resin catalyst on the magnetic reactor is substantially enhanced as compared to its performance on a conventional fixed-bed reactor under otherwise identical operation conditions. The magnetic catalyst has the potential to be loaded and unloaded continuously on the magnetic reactor, which will greatly simplify the current complex industrial etherification processes.