Catalytic Performance of Commercial Zeolites Y as Catalyst for Ethylene Production from Ethanol Dehydration

• Main Authors: Soh, Jiah Chee, Chong, Soo Ling, Chin, S. Y., Cheng, C. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Dept. of Chemistry, UTM 2017
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14610/1/Full-paper-iCAT-2016.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14610/7/fkksa-2017-ckcheng-catalytic%20performance%20of%20commercial.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14610/; http://mjcat.utm.my/index.php/MalJCat/article/view/28/pdf
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Pahang

Catalytic dehydration of ethanol into ethylene was studied over commercial Zeolites-Y with different Si:Al ratios between 5.1:1 and 80:1, and temperature from 573 K to 773 K. The physicochemical properties of fresh and spent catalyst of Zeolite Y Si:Al 80:1 (best performing catalyst) were investigated using N2-physisorption, TGA, SEM-EDX, NH3-TPD, FTIR and XRD. Results showed that catalysts with higher Si:Al ratios exhibit better catalytic performance in terms of higher ethanol conversion and higher selectivity to ethylene. Indeed, zeolites-Y with Si:Al ratio 5.1:1 and 12:1 demonstrated low catalytic activity with ethanol conversion of 34% and 2%, respectively. However, ethylene selectivity of NH3-Y (5) was 84%, which was considerably higher than NH3-Y (12) which was 26%, indicated that this catalyst was not promoting the formation of other hydrocarbons i.e. methane and ethane. Albeit all of the catalysts namely H-Y (30), H-Y (60) and H-Y (80) showed favorable performance in ethanol dehydration, H-Y (80) attained almost total selectivity to ethylene and highest conversion of 73.0% among all the tested catalysts.