Paper Title
Red Mud As Catalyst For Ethyl-Benzene Hydro-Dealkylation

Abstract
Red mud is an industrial waste of the bauxite processing industry. In this paper the utilization of red mud as catalyst is considered since it contains a lot of metals compounds such as Fe2O3, Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, V2O5, MgO, MnO2, ZnO, ZrO2, Ni, Ga having catalytic properties. The hydrogenation / hydro-dealkylation reaction of the ethyl-benzene was studied in batch reactor at temperature of 450°C over differently treated red mud samples. The cyclohexane and toluene were the main reaction products. The hydrocarbon cracking reaction was also evidenced by the formation of methane. The conversion of ethyl-benzene was about 50% over untreated and calcined red mud. The acidic treatment of red mud followed by calcination at 400°C increased the conversion of ethyl-benzene up to 58%. The morphology and surface properties of the red mud were also studied. Pulse sorption and BET data were correlated with the catalytic activity of the red mud in the hydro-dealkylation reaction of the ethyl-benzene. Keywords- Ethyl-Benzene, Hydro-dealkylation, Red Mud as Catalyst, Surface Properties.