Synthesis of Submicron SSZ-13 with Tunable Acidity by the Seed-Assisted Method and Its Performance and Coking Behavior in the MTO Reaction

Recent Trends in Tailoring External Acidity in Zeolites for Catalysis

Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates with well-defined microporous structures that have found several applications in catalysis. In recent years, great effort has been devoted to defining strategies aimed at tuning structural and acidity properties to improve the catalytic performance of zeolites. Depending on the zeolitic structure, the acid sites located inside the crystals catalyze reactions by exploiting the internal channel shape-selectivity. In contrast, strong acid sites located on the external surface do not offer the possibility to control the size of molecules involved in the reactions. This aspect generally leads to a loss of selectivity toward desired products and to the uncontrolled production of coke. Passivating surface acidity is a promising way to overcome deactivation issues and to enhance the catalytic performance of zeolites. This Mini-Review aims to provide, for the first time, a complete overview of the techniques employed in recent years to neutralize strong external acid sites. Both chemical and liquid vapor deposition of silicates have been widely employed to passivate the external surface acidity of zeolites. In recent years, the epitaxial growth of layers of aluminum-free zeolite, e.g., silicalite-1, over the surface of the acidic zeolite has been proposed as a new approach to neutralize strong external acid sites controlling diffusional phenomena. NH3-TPD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, and other techniques have been used to provide information about the level of control of the external strong acidity of passivated zeolites. In this Mini-Review, both passivation treatments and characterization techniques are compared and advantages and disadvantages deeply discussed to elucidate the effect of passivation procedures on physical features and especially the catalytic behavior.

Influence of Substrate Concentration on Kinetic Parameters of Ethanol Dehydration in MFI and CHA Zeolites and Relation of These Kinetic Parameters to Acid–Base Properties

The catalytic activity of zeolites is often related to their acid–base properties. In this work, the relationship between the value of apparent activation energy of ethanol dehydration, measured in a fixed bed reactor and by means of a temperature-programmed surface reaction (TPSR) depending on the amount of ethanol in the zeolite lattice and the value of activation energy of H/D exchange as a measure of acid–base properties of MFI and CHA zeolites, was studied. Tests in a fixed bed reactor were unable to provide reliable reaction kinetics data due to internal diffusion limitations and rapid catalyst deactivation. Only the TPSR method was able to provide activation energy values comparable to the activation energy values obtained from the H/D exchange rate measurements. In addition, for CHA zeolite, it has been shown that the values of ethanol dehydration activation energies depend on the amount of ethanol in the CHA framework, and this effect can be attributed to the substrate clustering effects supporting the deprotonation of zeolite Brønsted centers.

Direct Conversion of Syngas to Light Olefins over a ZnCrO x + H-SSZ-13 Bifunctional Catalyst

In recent years, bifunctional catalysts for the syngas-to-olefins (STO) reaction via the oxide-zeolite (OX-ZEO) strategy has been intensively investigated. However, the bifunctional catalyst containing H-SSZ-13 with a 100% H+-exchanging degree for the STO reaction has not been developed because of the high selectivity to paraffin. Here, we report a ZnCrO x + H-SSZ-13 bifunctional catalyst, which contains the submicron H-SSZ-13 with adequate acidic strength. Light olefins in hydrocarbon reached 70.8% at a CO conversion of 20.9% over the ZnCrO x + H-SSZ-13(23S) bifunctional catalyst at 653 K, 1.0 MPa, and GHSV = 6000 mL·g-1·h-1 after 800 min of STO reaction. The effect of CO and H2 on the C-C coupling was discussed by carrying out the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) reaction under a similar atmosphere as that of the STO reaction. H2 and CO should play a more dominant role than the conventional hydrogen transfer reaction on the undesired high selectivity of paraffins. These findings provide new insight into the design of the bifunctional catalyst for the STO process via the OX-ZEO strategy.