Porosity and acidity patterns of steam treated BEA zeolite material for enhanced catalytic isomerization of naphtha

A series of BEA zeolite based catalysts have been prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM, surface area, porosity and acidity methods. The catalytic properties of BEA zeolite have been improved through steam assisted dealumination reaction to achieve improvement in crystallinity, surface area, pore volume, mesopores and decrease in total acidity along with increase in strong acidity (>100 kJ/mol) measured by heat of adsorption of ammonia. All these properties collectively contributed to the formation of branched paraffins, where, the sample BEA-2 obtained by steam treatment of BEA zeolite at 500 °C indeed exhibited promising catalytic activity in the production of branched paraffins (responsible for higher research octane number, RON, needed for gasoline applications) from n-heptane model compound and two industrial naphtha mixed hydrocarbon feedstocks. The isomer yields obtained on naphtha-1 and naphtha-2 feedstocks are 49.3 wt.% and 52.1 wt.% respectively. The results suggest that the catalyst is potential for octane boosting (16–39 units increase in RON) of industrial hydrocarbon feedstocks to produce aromatic-free, isoparaffins-rich gasoline blending stock suitable for fuel applications.