Hydrocarbon conversion with an acidic multimetallic catalytic composite

Abstract

Hydrocarbons are converted by contacting them at hydrocarbon conversion conditions with an acidic multimetallic catalytic composite comprising a combination of catalytically effective amounts of a platinum or palladium component, an iridium component, a cobalt component, a Group IVA metallic component and a halogen component with a porous carrier material. The platinum or palladium iridium, cobalt, Group IVA metallic and halogen components are present in the multimetallic catalyst in amounts, respectively, calculated on an elemental basis, corresponding to about 0.01 to about 2 wt. % platinum or palladium, about 0.01 to about 2 wt. % iridium, about 0.05 to about 5 wt. % cobalt, about 0.01 to about 5 wt. % Group IVA metal and about 0.1 to about 3.5 wt. % halogen. These metallic components are, moreover, uniformly dispersed throughout the porous carrier material in carefully controlled oxidation states such that substantially all of the platinum or palladium and iridium are present therein in the elemental metallic state, substantially all of the Group IVA metal is in a positive oxidation state and substantially all of the catalytically available cobalt component is present in the elemental metallic state or in a state which is reducible to the elemental metallic state under hydrocarbon conversion conditions or in a mixture of these states. A specific example of the type of hydrocarbon conversion process disclosed is a process for the catalytic reforming of a low-octane gasoline fraction wherein the gasoline fraction and a hydrogen stream are contacted with the acidic multimetallic catalyst disclosed herein at reforming conditions.