Highly shape-selective Zn-P/HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst for methanol conversion to light aromatics

A highly shape-selective and relatively long-lifetime HZSM-5-based catalyst (Zn-2P/HZSM-5) was prepared by chemical modification with both ZnSiF 6 ·6H 2 O and H 3 PO 4 solution. The phosphoric acid modification could effectively modulate the Brønsted acid strength of the HZSM-5 catalyst, which promotes the oligomerization, alkylation, cyclization, and hydrogen transfer reactions. The introduction of Zn-Lewis acid sites significantly improved the dehydroaromatization of higher olefins. All of these were very beneficial for the generation of BTX (i.e. b enzene, t oluene, and x ylene) hydrocarbons in aromatization of methanol. The coke amount and the average rate of coke formation decreased over the Zn-2P/HZSM-5 catalysts, which may largely be ascribed to its lower strong acid sites and lower outer surface acidity. The catalytic performance of methanol aromatization showed that the Zn-2P/HZSM-5 catalyst exhibited the highest BTX selectivity of about 46.76% and the longest catalytic lifetime of about 498 h at T = 400 °C, P = 0.1 MPa, and weight hourly space velocity = 0.7 h −1 .