Methanol promoted naphtha catalytic pyrolysis to light olefins on Zn-modified high-silicon HZSM-5 zeolite catalysts

The methanol promoted naphtha catalytic pyrolysis system to obtain light olefins (ethylene and propylene) was studied over Zn-modified high-silicon HZSM-5 (Zn/HZSM-5) catalysts. Compared with the individual naphtha catalytic pyrolysis to light olefins, the addition of methanol remarkably improved the naphtha conversion and the yield of the light olefins. All Zn/HZSM-5 samples were characterized by using a variety of techniques including inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N-2 adsorption, NH3-temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), pyridine adsorption infrared spectroscopy (Py-IR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The performances of the catalysts for methanol promoted naphtha catalytic pyrolysis were evaluated in a fixed-bed reactor. In the methanol promoted naphtha catalytic pyrolysis reaction, the yield of the light olefins was strongly dependent on the reaction conditions and the degree of Zn ion-exchange. Due to the heterogeneous distribution of the protons of high silicon ZSM-5, two types of Lewis acid sites were formed by the interaction of Zn with hydroxyl groups (OH) adsorbed on HZSM-5. The 0.3-Zn/HZSM-5 (0.3 mol L-1 Zn ion-exchange HZSM-5) sample holds a comparatively high light olefin yield of 51.7 wt% possibly because of the moderate density and distribution of the acid sites on the catalyst.