Synthesis of cerium-substituted MFI type metallosilicate catalyst for selective formation of propylene from methanol

The conventional H-ZSM-5 and the cerium (Ce)-substituted MFI type metallosilicate catalysts with Si/Al ratio of 220 and Si/Ce ratio of 50 were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. Tetra propyl ammonium bromide (TPABr) was utilized as the template material for the synthesis of catalyst samples. The prepared catalysts were properly characterized by XRD and FE-SEM analysis. The catalytic conversion of methanol to propylene (MTP) was conducted over the prepared catalysts. The MTP reaction was carried out in a plug flow and fixed-bed reactor under atmospheric pressure. The operating conditions were as follow: reaction temperature of 500 °C and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 2.51 h-1. Both of the catalyst samples demonstrated high catalytic activity in the MTP reaction. In comparison with the conventional H-ZSM-5 catalyst, the propylene selectivity was improved significantly over the Ce-substituted MFI metallosilicate. The propylene selectivity obtained over the conventional H-ZSM-5 and the Ce-substituted MFI metallosilicate were 33.16% and 41.03%, respectively.