Mineral-catalyzed dehydrogenation of C6 cyclic hydrocarbons: results from experimental studies under hydrothermal conditions

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitously present in volcanic and hydrothermal gases. Their relative abundances have been demonstrated to be sensitive to physical and chemical parameters, suggesting VOCs as potential tools for evaluating deep reservoir conditions. Nevertheless, reaction pathways for VOC production at hydrothermal conditions are still poorly understood. Reversible catalytic reforming may be responsible for the high abundance of benzene observed in hydrothermal gases relative to saturated hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation of n-hexane to benzene could proceed with C6 cyclic hydrocarbons as intermediates, as suggested by the relative enrichment in cyclic hydrocarbons observed in gases originating at T <150 °C. In this study, laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the production of benzene from cyclic hydrocarbons at 300°C and 85 bar. At these conditions in pure water, negligible benzene is produced from cyclohexane after 10 days. The presence of a mineral phase, especially sphalerite, favored the formation of both benzene and cyclohexene. The efficiency of dehydroaromatization reaction increased at increasing mineral/cyclohexane ratio, pointing to a surface catalyzed reaction. The catalytic action of sphalerite on the C-H bonds was confirmed by the large abundance of deuterated cyclohexane resulted in D2O experiments. The same experiment carried out using cyclohexene in pure water mainly produced methyl-cyclopentenes (via isomerization) and cyclohexanol (via oxygenation). In presence of sphalerite, the production of significant amounts of benzene confirmed the critical role of this mineral for the aromatization of cyclic compounds under hydrothermal conditions. Contrarily, products from cyclohexene solution phase oxidation using Cu(II) mainly consisted of oxygenated VOCs.