Effect of synthesis parameters on the crystallinity of EU-1 zeolite for the m-xylene isomerization reaction

Abstract

The EU-1 zeolite with Si/Al = 25 was synthesized by hexamethonium bromide as a template. The effects of crystallization time, synthesis temperature, and the pH of the synthesis gel on the structure and crystallinity of EU-1 zeolite were investigated. The synthesized EU-1 zeolite was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, BET, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and inductively coupled plasma. The most effective conditions for synthesis of EU-1 were identified as follow: synthesis time 72 h, temperature 200°C, pH of gel ≃ 13, and aging time of 12 h. The catalytic performance of this catalyst was investigated for meta-xylene isomerization reaction in a fixed bed reactor under the following conditions: pressure of 10 bars, the temperature of 380°C, feed space velocity of 3.35 h–1 and 4 g of the EU-1 catalyst. In comparison to other reported catalysts our synthetic EU-1 showed good m-xylene conversion and high PX/OX ratio.