Hydrothermal stability, zeolite

Sodium decreases the hydrothermal stability of the zeolite. It also reacts with the zeolite acid sites to reduce catalyst activity. In the regenerator, sodium is mobile. Sodium ions tend to neutralize the strongest acid sites. In a dealuminated zeolite, where the UCS is low (24.22°A to 24.25°A), the sodium can have an adverse affect on the gasoline octane (Figure 3-7). The loss of octane is attributed to the drop in the number of strong acid sites. 

A typical NaY zeolite contains approximately 13 wt% Na20. To enhance activity and thermal and hydrothermal stability of NaY, the sodium level must be reduced. This is normally done by the ion exchanging of NaY with a medium containing rare earth cations and/ or hydrogen ions. Ammonium sulfate solutions are frequently employed as a source for hydrogen ions. 

MicrocrystalUne zeolites such as beta zeolite suffer from calcination. The crystallinity is decreased and the framework can be notably dealuminated by the steam generated [175]. Potential Br0nsted catalytic sites are lost and heteroatoms migrate to extra-framework positions, leading to a decrease in catalytic performance. Nanocrystals and ultrafine zeolite particles display aggregation issues, difficulties in regeneration, and low thermal and hydrothermal stabilities. Therefore, calcination is sometimes not the optimal protocol to activate such systems. Application of zeolites for coatings, patterned thin-films, and membranes usually is associated with defects and cracks upon template removal. 

The separation factors are relatively low and consequently the MR is not able to approach full conversion. With a molecular sieve silica (MSS) or a supported palladium film membrane, an (almost) absolute separation can be obtained (Table 10.1). The MSS membranes however, suffer from a flux/selectivity trade-off meaning that a high separation factor is combined with a relative low flux. Pd membranes do not suffer from this trade-off and can combine an absolute separation factor with very high fluxes. A favorable aspect for zeoHte membranes is their thermal and chemical stability. Pd membranes can become unstable due to impurities like CO, H2S, and carbonaceous deposits, and for the MSS membrane, hydrothermal stability is a major concern [62]. But the performance of the currently used zeolite membranes is insufficient to compete with other inorganic membranes, as was also concluded by Caro et al. [63] for the use of zeolite membranes for hydrogen purification. 

This chapter discusses the synthesis, characterization and applications of a very unique mesoporous material, TUD-1. This amorphous material possesses three-dimensional intercoimecting pores with narrow pore size distribution and excellent thermal and hydrothermal stabilities. The basic material is Si-TUD-1 however, many versions of TUD-1 using different metal variants have been prepared, characterized, and evaluated for a wide variety of hydrocarbon processing applications. Also, zeolitic material can be incorporated into the mesoporous TUD-1 to take the advantage of its mesopores to facilitate the reaction of large molecules, and enhance the mass transfer of reactants, intermediates and products. Examples of preparation and application of many different TUD-1 are described in this chapter. 

The development of composite micro/mesoporous materials opens new perspectives for the improvement of zeolytic catalysts. These materials combine the advantages of both zeolites and mesoporous molecular sieves, in particular, strong acidity, high thermal and hydrothermal stability and improved diffusivity of bulky molecules due to reduction of the intracrystalline diffusion path length, resulting from creation of secondary mesoporous structure. It can be expected that the creation of secondary mesoporous structure in zeolitic crystals, on the one hand, will result in the improvement of the effectiveness factor in hydroisomerization process and, on the other hand, will lead to the decrease of the residence time of products and minimization of secondary reactions, such as cracking. This will result in an increase of both the conversion and the selectivity to isomerization products. 

Zeolites though possess high hydrothermal stability and enhanced catalytic activity, the merits are not fully exploited for industrial applications because micropores hinder the diffusion of bulkier molecules. This led to the development of new kind of silicious materials like that of MCM and SBA with large pore volumes which can be accessed by bulkier molecules. But these suffer with the limitation of week catalytic activity and poor hydrothermal stability which hampers their use for various industrial applications... 

Nowadays synthesis of mesoporous materials with zeolite character has been suggested to overcome the problems of week catalytic activity and poor hydrothermal stability of highly silicious materials. So different approaches for the synthesis of this new generation of bimodal porous materials have been described in the literature like dealumination [4] or desilication [5], use of various carbon forms as templates like carbon black, carbon aerosols, mesoporous carbon or carbon replicas [6] have been applied. These mesoporous zeolites potentially improve the efficiency of zeolitic catalysis via increase in external surface area, accessibility of large molecules due to the mesoporosity and hydrothermal stability due to zeolitic crystalline walls. During past few years various research groups emphasized the importance of the synthesis of siliceous materials with micro- and mesoporosity [7-9]. Microwave synthesis had... 

Recently, mesoporous aluminosilicates with strong acidity and high hydrothermal stability have been synthesized via self-assembly of aluminosilicate nanoclusters with templating micelles. The materials were found to contain both micro- and mesopores, and the pore walls consist of primary and secondary building units, which might be responsible for the acidity and stability (181). These materials were tested in isobutane/n-butene alkylation at 298 K, showing a similar time-on-stream behavior to that of zeolite BEA. No details of the product distribution were given. 

Stability. Ultrastable Y zeolites, prepared by the hydrothermal treatment of ammonium Y zeolites, have considerable thermal and hydrothermal stability (6) The high... 

Aluminum-deficient Y zeolites prepared by partial removal of aluminum with a chelating agent (e.g. EDTA) also show improved thermal and hydrothermal stability compared to the parent zeolite. The optimum stability was found in the range of 25 to 50 percent of framework A1 extraction (8). However, the maximum degree of dealumination is also affected by the SiO /Al O ratio in the parent zeolite a higher ratio appears to allow more advanced dealumination without loss of crystallinity (8,25,45). Above 50 or 60 percent dealumination, significant loss of crystallinity was observed. Calcination of the aluminum-deficient zeolite resulted in a material with a smaller unit cell size and lower ion-exchange capacity compared to the parent zeolite. 

The characteristics of aluminophosphate molecular sieves include a univariant framework composition with Al/P = 1, a high degree of structural diversity and a wide range of pore sizes and volumes, exceeding the pore sizes known previously in zeolite molecular sieves with the VPI-5 18-membered ring material. They are neutral frameworks and therefore have nil ion-exchange capacity or acidic catalytic properties. Their surface selectivity is mildly hydrophilic. They exhibit excellent thermal and hydrothermal stability, up to 1000 °C (thermal) and 600 °C (steam). 

Steam is invariably present in a real exhaust gas of motor vehieles in relatively high concentration due to the fuel combustion. The influence of water vapor on catalytic performances should not be ignored when dealing with the aim to develop a practical TWCs. Cu/ZSM-5 catalysts once were regarded as suitable substitutes to precious metal catalysts for NO elimination[78], nevertheless, they are susceptible to hydrothermal dealumination leading to a permanent loss of activity[79], Perovskites have a higher hydrothermal stability than zeolites[35]. Although perovskites were expected to be potential autocatalysts in the presence of water[80], few reports related to the influence of water on the reactants adsorption, the perovskite physicochemical properties, and the catalytic performance in NO-SCR were previously documented. The H2O deactivation mechanism is also far from well established. 

In the early 70 s, FCC formulations containing 10-40% CREY (calcined rare-earth exchanged Y zeolites) were widely employed because these catalysts offered improved chemical as well as thermal and hydrothermal stability over FCC compositions containing equivalent amounts of (low sodium) HY crystals (23-25). The... 

Different procedures can be used in practice to activate the zeolite, and the choice of a particular method will depend on the catalytic characteristics desired. If the main objective is to prepare a very active cracking catalyst, then a considerable percentage of the sodium is exchanged by rare earth cations. On the other hand, if the main purpose is to obtain gasoline with a high RON, ultrastable Y zeolites (USY) with very low Na content are prepared. Then a small amount of rare earth cations is exchanged, but a controlled steam deactivation step has to be introduced in the activation procedure to obtain a controlled dealumination of the zeolite. This procedure achieves a high thermal and hydrothermal stability of the zeolite, provided that silicon is inserted in the vacancies left by extraction of A1 from the framework (1). The commercial catalysts so obtained have framework Si/Al ratios in the... 

Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates with a regular pore structure. These materials have been used in major catalytic processes for a number of years. The application using the largest quantities of zeolites is FCC [102]. The zeolites with significant cracking activity are dealuminated Y zeolites that exhibit greatly increased hydrothermal stability, and are accordingly called ultrastable Y zeolites (USY), ZSM-5 (alternatively known as MFI), mordenite, offretite, and erionite [103]. 

Hydrothermal (steam) stability is also important, in as much as the catalyst must pass through a high temperature stripping zone in which the usual fluid stripping medium is steam. In our laboratory, zeolite hydrothermal stability is measured by comparing the x-ray crystallinity of the unknown faujasite sample with that of a fully rare earth exchanged reference standard following a 3 hour, 100% steam, 1500 F treatment. 

Thermal and hydrothermal stability are necessary but not sufficient criteria for an acceptable cracking catalyst, since both the life expectancy and the activity of the zeolite catalyst is of importance to the refiner. Activity is controlled by the catalyst manufacturer in one of two ways, by either adding more zeolite or increasing the stability and activity of the zeolite. 

From 1967 to 1969, Kerr published a series of papers on the question of thermal and hydrothermal stabilities of sodium and hydrogen zeolite Y (22-26). These studies indicated that upon removal of about one-third of the aluminum from zeolite Y, using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (H4EDTA), the thermal and hydrothermal stabilities were much enhanced. This was observed for both sodium (23) and hydrogen (25) forms of the zeolite. The latter was prepared by careful calcination of an ammonium zeolite from which about 30% of the ammonium and aluminum had been removed. Kerr also showed that the true or normal hydrogen zeolite with... 

Important properties of zeolite adsorbents for a fixed-bed application are adsorptive capacity and selectivity, adsorption-desorption rate, physical strength and attrition resistance, low catalytic activity, thermal-hydrothermal stability, chemical stability, and particle size and shape. Apparent bulk density of zeolite adsorbents is important because it is related to the adsorptive capacity per unit volume and also somewhat to rate of adsorption and desorption. However, more important properties related to the rates and therefore to the actual useful capacity would be the zeolite crystal size and the macropore size distribution. Although the ultimate basis in selecting a zeolite adsorbent for a specific application would be the performance, the price, and the projected service life of a product, these factors depend largely upon the above properties. 

The samples obtained by this procedure, containing various ratios of zeolite and mesoporous materials, were tested in 100% steam for 5 hours at temperatures of 650 and 815°C, respectively, in a fixed bed reactor. Prior to the tests the samples were calcined at 550°C in N2 (1 hour) and dry air (4 hours). Synthesis and characterization data for the most interesting samples with regard to improved hydrothermal stability are listed in Tables 1 and 2. 

The above results show that post synthesis alumination of PSM with AlfNOjfi improves the hydrothermal stability of the resulting AMM material. Similar effect has been observed by Mokaya et al. [12], who reported that the hydrothermal stability of MCM-41 could be enhanced by reaction with chlorohydrate of aluminium. Moreover, from the study of high Si/Al ratio of Y zeolite, Lutz et al. [13] reported that the hydrothermal stability of Y zeolite was enhanced by an external introduction of non-structural aluminum species onto the surface of Y zeolite. The surface layer of Al-rich aluminosilicate or aluminum oxide was suggested to block the terminal OH groups and energy-rich =Si-0-Si= bonds on the surface of Y zeolite, hence minimizing the attack of water molecules on the framework. Due to these properties, the non-structural... 

It is clear that the zeolite delta coke will have a strong effect on the regenerator temperature and hence on the catalyst deactivation. Depending on the trend in FCC regenerator temperatures, the aspect of hydrothermal stability might become of greater importance. 

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