Synthesis, characterization, and catalytic application of mesoporous SAPO-34 molecular sieves

In order to enhance the catalytic performance of SAPO-34 for the reaction of methanol to olefins (MTO), various mesogenous templates, such as TPOAC, CTAB, and their combinations were used to synthesize nanosized SAPO-34. The effects of the composition of the mixed template on the chemical composition and morphology of SAPO-34 were characterized by XRD, FESEM and BET techniques. The catalytic performance of prepared SAPO-34 was investigated in a fixed-bed reactor under atmospheric pressure, 450 °C and WHSV of 4 h–1. Comprehending the results, it can be said that in comparison with the typical catalysts, reliable MTO catalytic lifetime (420 min) as well as sufficiently high light olefins selectivity (90 %) was obtained through the nanosized hierarchical porous SAPO-34 templated with a mixture of 50% CTAB and 50% TPOAC.