Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering

Advances in Zeolite Catalysts for Hydroprocessing in Chemical Industry

Chen Ning^* Department of Chemistry, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
^*Correspondence: Chen Ning, Department of Chemistry, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, Email:

Received: 03-Feb-2023, Manuscript No. ACE-23-20678; Editor assigned: 06-Feb-2023, Pre QC No. ACE-23-20678 (PQ); Reviewed: 21-Feb-2023, QC No. ACE-23-20678; Revised: 28-Feb-2023, Manuscript No. ACE-23-20678 (R); Published: 07-Mar-2023, DOI: 10. 35248/2090-4568.23.13.274

Description

Zeolites have played crucial roles in a variety of industries, including the chemical industry and petroleum refining, from their original discovery as natural mines and subsequent largescale commercial production. It's always a hot and difficult topic to comprehend how zeolites differ from their counterparts with identical chemical compositions in terms of their properties, as well as how they were created. On the molecular level, zeolites are recognised as intrinsically confined systems with organised channels, and structural confinement has been postulated to account for their distinctive chemical properties. In general, zeolites channels can control how molecules diffuse, resulting in observable differences in molecular transport and ultimately shape-selective catalysis. The local electric field within the zeolite channels or cages, on the other hand, can influence the guest molecules and change their energy levels.

Modern complex oil refineries heavily rely on hydroprocessing technology, and zeolite catalysts are opening up intriguing new possibilities for this kind of processing. In this paper, a variety of processes are discussed, including hydroisomerization, petrol upgrading, catalytic dewaxing, and hydrocracking, which uses zeolite catalysts.

The most popular method for combining micropores and mesopores in a material nowadays among advances in hierarchical pore structures is to create mesopores in zeolite crystals. The many methods for creating and characterising mesopores in zeolite crystals and determining their influence on the catalytic action are summarised here. Mesopores can be produced in a number of ways, but the two that are most usually used are steaming and acid leaching. Recently, novel methods utilising secondary carbon templates that are eliminated after synthesis have been introduced. Nitrogen physisorption and electron microscopy are frequently employed to characterise mesopores.

Recently, it has been demonstrated that the mesopores three dimensional shape, size, and connection can be seen by using electron tomography, a type of three-dimensional transmission electron microscopy. The effects of mesopores on catalysis are shown for a number of industrially relevant processes that use zeolite catalysts, including the hydroisomerization of alkanes and cumene production over mordenite, as well as the synthesis of fine chemicals over Y, ZSM-5, and Beta. For these processes, the zeolite micropores produce the preferred shape-selective characteristics while the mesopores ensure optimal accessibility and transport of reactants and products.

Due to their superior performance in catalysed processes compared to ordinary (pure microporous) zeolites, hierarchical (or mesoporous) zeolites have drawn an increasing amount of interest. Due to an ideal balance of effectiveness and simplicity, desiccation in alkaline media has become a commonly used preparation method to design these modified zeolites. The recent advancements that have improved general comprehension and made this top-down approach more adaptable, manageable, and scalable. Mesoporous zeolites' design considerations for catalytic applications are highlighted, with a focus on establishing synthesis-property-function links. A crucial step towards creating improved zeolite catalysts is alkaline treatment in combination with other post-synthesis changes.

In a fixed bed microreactor operating at atmospheric pressure, 350°C-450°C reaction temperature, and 1/4 h-1 Weight Hourly Space Velocities (WHSVs), the catalytic cracking of palm oil to fuels was investigated. The effects of reaction temperature and WHSV on the conversion of palm oil and yields of petrol were investigated using HZSM-5, zeolite, and Ultra Stable Y (USY) zeolites with various pore sizes. It was investigated how well HZSM-5-USY and HZSM-5-zeolite hybrid catalysts performed when HZSM-5 was present in concentrations of 10%, 20%, and 30%. The influence of acidity on the selectivity for petrol production was investigated using potassium impregnated KHZSM-5 catalysts with various potassium loadings. Organic Liquid Product (OLP), hydrocarbon gases, and water were the main byproducts produced.