Development of Zeolite Y And Zsm5 Composite Catalyst from Kankara Kaolin.
ABSTRACT
Y was synthesized from Kankara kaolin using a split . The zeolite Y synthesized was thermally stabilized by impregnating with rare earth .
Catalytic cracking ; catalyst Y zeolite and catalyst Y zeolite + ZSM5 blend were formulated. The physicochemical and thermal properties of the raw and intermediate materials, zeolite synthesized and catalyst formulated were characterized using XRD, XRF, BET, SEM, TEM, TGA/DTG, FTIR, UV/VIS spectrometry, and Flame photometry.
The acidity of the zeolite Y synthesized was determined using the pyridine probe acidity test. The catalytic performance of the catalysts formulated was determined using a fixed bed catalytic cracking reactor.
The BET specific surface area, pore-volume, Si/Al, and average particle size of the Kankara kaolin used as raw material were 12.95 m 2 /g, 0.0038 cm 3 /g, 1.9 and 1.0 µm respectively.
The BET specific surface area, pore-volume, Si/Al, and average particle size of a typical zeolite Y synthesized from Kankara kaolin were 830.0 m 2 /g, 0.2951 cm 3 /g, 4.26, and 1.425 nm respectively.
The crystallinity of the synthesized zeolite Y was 72.5% that of a commercial zeolite Y. The Lewis acidity, BrØnsted acidity, total acidic concentrations of the synthesized zeolite Y using the novel method were 69.82, 178.19, and 248.01 µmol/g respectively.
The formulated catalyst Y prepared from the zeolite Y synthesized using the novel split method showed high catalytic performances. The activity and gasoline yield at a reaction temperature of 500˚C were 70.89% and 17.92% respectively.
The formulated composite catalyst Y zeolite + ZSM5 blend using the zeolite Y synthesized using the novel split method showed higher catalytic performances than their counterpart catalyst Y.
The activity and gasoline yield at a reaction temperature of 500˚C were 73.17% and 59.38% respectively. The synthesized zeolite Y also showed highly promising performance when used for adsorptive desulfurization of a model diesel oil using the microwave-assisted desulfurization method.
INTRODUCTION
The global demand for energy is exponentially increasing on daily basis due to continuous advances in global technology, especially mechanical, electrical, transportation, and process technologies.
Most of the machines, equipment, or appliances invented as the products of these modern technologies are operated directly or indirectly by employing energy potent.
Petroleum remains the major and primary global source of energy. Petroleum occurs naturally as crude oil which is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and some other sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen-containing organic compounds.
The treatment of this complex mixture to make it suitable for use as fuel requires extreme reaction conditions in the presence of an appropriate catalyst; a process referred to as refining.
The refining process causes a variety of changes to occur simultaneously in the chemistry of the crude oil, producing a broad spectrum of commercially viable products.
The industrial refining of crude oil entails atmospheric and vacuum distillation designed to achieve the maximum extraction of gasoline and other lighter fuels as much as possible during the refining process.
The residual product, heavy bottom product, left of the crude oil after the atmospheric and vacuum distillation known as the gas oil can still produce a lot of useful petroleum products if it is properly processed.
The profit maximization of a refinery depends on the extent it is able to recover the gasoline and other fuels in the gas oil. Hence, the gas oil produced is further sent to the cracking unit where the gasoline and other fuels are recovered from the gas oil.
Cracking means the breaking down of large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller and more valuable fractions. This can be done by thermal or catalytic methods. The thermal method known as thermal cracking was the earlier cracking method which is almost phased out in modern petroleum technology practices.
The method entails cracking of large hydrocarbon molecules, into smaller fractions by employing high reaction temperature up to 750 – 900°C and high pressure up to 70 atm (Gary and Handwerk, 2001).
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StudentsandScholarship Team.