Study of mesoporous catalysts for conversion of 2,3-butanediol to butenes

In this study, three different types of mesoporous materials (Al-MCM-48, Al-SBA-15 and hierarchical ZSM-5 (meso-ZSM-5) where mesoporosity was introduced into ZSM-5 by sodium hydroxide treatment) were loaded with similar to 20 wt% CuO and investigated in the conversion of 2,3-butanediol to butenes. The results showed that the introduction of mesopores on the catalysts (Al-MCM-48 and Al-SBA-15 types) could decrease the production of cracking products, especially C-3(square) and C-5(square)-C-7(square) by comparison to the catalyst with similar to 20 wt% CuO loaded on HZSM-5; meanwhile, the selectivity of C-8(square) from oligomerization of butenes was found to increase with increasing pore size of the catalysts. In addition, Cu/meso-ZSM-5 catalyst has a performance with similarities to both Cu/ZSM-5 catalyst and mesoporous copper catalysts (Cu/Al-MCM-48 and Cu/Al-SBA-15) since both micropores (diameter of similar to 0.55 nm) and mesopores (pore size of similar to 23 nm) exist on meso-ZSM-5. Therefore, Cu/meso-ZSM-5 showed high activity for both cracking reactions (C-3(square) and C-5(square)-C-7(square)) and oligomerization (C-8(square)). (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.