| abstract |
A process is disclosed for reactivating an agglomerated iridium-containing catalyst and particularly platinum-iridium on alumina reforming catalysts. The process includes a reducing step involving contacting a decoked agglomerated catalyst with a reducing gas such as hydrogen to reduce agglomerated iridium oxides to the free metal, a hydrogen halide pretreatment step to provide a halide level to the catalyst of about 1.3 weight percent, and an elemental halogen redispersion step. The hydrogen halide pretreatment step is performed under elemental oxygen-free conditions prior to redispersion and allows high iridium redispersion values to be obtained. If no iridium oxides are initially present, the hydrogen step is optional. |