Microwave intensified synthesis of Zeolite-Y from spent FCC catalyst after acid activation

Abstract

A novel microwave heating process for the synthesis of zeolite-Y from spent fluid catalytic cracking (SFCC) catalyst has been proposed in this work. The SFCC catalyst is firstly activated in microwave field by acid solution and then used as an aluminum source for the synthesis of zeolite-Y. The activation effect of hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid on the SFCC catalyst, and the synthesis effects of zeolite-Y production from the activated SFCC catalyst under microwave are studied by ICP, XRD, SEM, and N2 sorption studies. The results show that microwave-assisted acid activation process can facilitate the formation of the active γ-Al2O3 and as well enhance the crystallinity of zeolite-Y in the SFCC catalyst, which is beneficial for the synthesis of zeolite-Y. Compared with the inactivated SFCC catalyst, the activated SFCC catalyst has a larger specific surface area and a lower contaminated metal content. The specific surface areas of SFCC catalyst after activation by hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid are 197.1 and 113.6 m2/g, respectively, indicating better activation by hydrochloric acid compared to oxalic acid in the microwave field. The results demonstrate that increasing the synthesis temperature and prolonging the crystallization time favor the growth of zeolite-Y crystal particles, however, zeolite-Y partially transforms into zeolite-P. The priority of different aluminum sources in zeolite-Y synthesis is: hydrochloric acid activated SFCC catalyst > oxalic acid activated SFCC catalyst > inactivated SFCC catalyst. The zeolite-Y having a particle size range of 0.3–1 μm is successfully synthesized from the activated SFCC catalyst at 100 °C for 2 h under microwave at 2 kg/cm2 pressure and 1000 W power.