Catalytic hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes is an efficient way to provide chemical feedstocks. Herein, Ni-Pt nanoparticles (NPs) (0.051-0.126 wt% Pt) were first synthesized by liquid reduction without surfactant in a rotating packed bed to catalyze the hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde (CAL). Catalyst characterizations show that despite the thin amount of Pt, the regional Ni-Pt alloy and uniform distribution of Pt on Ni NPs as well as the unambiguous defect sites were found on the prepared Ni-Pt NPs. These explain the good catalytic performance of CAL hydrogenation where CAL conversion of 97.1% with hydrocinnamaldehyde (HCAL) selectivity of 88.4% was obtained. The reaction rate obtained by Ni-Pt NPs (0.0768 mol center dot g(-1)center dot h(-1)) is 2.94 times larger than that by Ni NPs (0.0261 mol center dot g(-1)center dot h(-1)) while the selectivity is not affected. Additionally, we investigated different parameters on the effect of CAL hydrogenation. Further, the kinetic study on the hydrogenation of CAL was exposed. The preexponential factor and activation energy are 3.22 x 10(11) and 90.99 kJ/mol, respectively.

This study presents the synthesis of petroleum sulfonate (PS) via gas-phase SO3 sulfonation in a rotating packed bed (RPB) and the relationship between the interfacial tension (IFT) at the oil-aqueous interface and the composition of PS. Through the process optimization, the content of active matter in the prepared PS could reach up to 42.5%, which was significantly higher than that in the industrial production (38%). Moreover, the oilaqueous IFT could reach an ultra-low value of 1.41 x10-3 mN/m. The analysis results of PS composition and IFT indicated that the oil-aqueous IFT was mainly affected by the content of alkyl benzene, alkyl indane, alkyl acenaphthylene and alkyl naphthalene sulfonates in PS. In addition, a correlation coefficient, which was consistent with the interfacial tension, was established for evaluation of the similarity between PS samples.

In this work, petroleum sulfonate (PS), which can be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), was synthesized by sulfonation of distillate oil using gaseous SO3 in a rotating packed bed. The prepared PS was characterized by FT-IR, NMR, negative electrospray ionization fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry [(-) ESI FT-ICR MS] and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Results showed that the PS contains N1, O1, O2, O3, N1O2, O3S, O4S, and N1O3S classes, among which O3S, O4S, and N1O3S are the three main classes. And the chemical composition of the PS was obtained by the combined analysis of the double-bond equivalent (DBE) and carbon number (CN). TGA results showed that PS is thermally stable at the conventional reservoir temperature (less than 200 degrees C). In addition, the EOR performance of PS was studied by measuring surface tension, interfacial tension (IFT), wettability alteration and core flooding experiments. Critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the prepared PS with a value of 0.2% was also determined by surface tension method. An ultra-low oil-water IFT value 1.327 x 10-3 mN/m was obtained at the CMC of PS solution. It was also found that adding PS into brine can decrease the contact angle below 90 degrees, indicating that it can alter the rock wettability from oil-wet to water-wet surface which contributes to enhancing oil recovery. Finally, core-flooding experiments were carried out with different PS concentrations. The results showed that an additional recovery of about 30% after conventional water flooding can be obtained at a PS concentration of 0.3%. This study indicated that the PS synthesized by gas-phase SO3 sulfonation in RPB has good EOR performance, and the work is helpful for the learning of the relationship between PS composition and EOR performance and give the guidance for PS's synthesis. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This work presents the dispersion of Ni nanoparticles into the ethanol solution without surfactant in a rotating packed bed (RPB). The effects of different operating parameters on the particles size distribution (PSD) of Ni nanoparticles in the solution were investigated. Furthermore, the influence of dispersion process on the catalytic performance was investigated by the catalytic hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde using Ni-Pt nanoparticles as catalyst. Also, a correlation to predict the average particles size (D[3,2]) was established, and the predicted D[3,2] fitted well to the experimental data with a deviation within 10%. The experimental results indicated that RPB could significantly intensify the dispersion of Ni nanoparticles in the solution, which is beneficial for the nano-catalysis reaction process. Catalytic results showed that the reaction rate of CAL obtained in RPB were about twice that in the stirring tank reactor at H-2 pressure of 2 MPa. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

•The reaction kinetics of phenol sulfonation by concentrated sulfuric acid was measured in a stirred tank reactor.•Effect of operating conditions on the yield and selectivity of product were optimized based on the kinetic model.•The rotating packed bed (RPB) was employed to intensify the micro-mixing efficiency of phenol sulfonation process.

In this study, we report a potentially scalable strategy for the cost/time-efficient production of water-soluble functionalized few layered graphene (FcG) through the mild defluorination of graphite fluoride (GF) at room temperature (RT). The strategy includes mechanical milling which is of high simplicity and operability, and subsequently water purification. By using heteroatom-containing alkaline such as NaNH2 and Na2S, N or S dopants can be functionalized into the defluorinated graphene, leading to the formation of N- and S-doped FcG, respectively. Our methodology of defluorination of GF allows the fabrication of water soluble FcG in much safer ways relative to the conventional Hummers' method that involves strong acidic/oxidative ambience and disposal of large amount of salt wastes. Meanwhile, the abundance of GF and the simplicity of processibility may also facilitate the practical uses of FcG obtained via our methodology.