Kinetic Modelling of Methanol to Propylene Process on Cerium-hierarchical SAPO-34 Catalyst

In this paper, conventional SAPO-34 and Cerium Hierarchical SAPO-34 zeolites are synthesized using a hydrothermal method for methanol-to-propylene (MTP) reaction. The Ce-H-SAPO-34 catalyst shows a slightly larger crystal size, bimodal pore size distribution (microporous and mesoporous) and lower surface acidity compared to conventional SAPO-34 catalysts. According to these physicochemical properties and the previously suggested reaction mechanisms on the conventional SAPO-34 catalyst, a new reaction network is introduced for Ce-H-SAPO-34 catalyst. This was based on the data collected from a catalytic micro reactor in the temperature range of 390-450°C and at atmospheric pressure. The lumped kinetic model and the reaction rate expression have been introduced by considering the reaction network. The parameters were then estimated based on the experimental data using genetic algorithms. Comparing the experiments with the predicted data suggests a good correlation between the experimental data and the model.