Synthesis and Characterization of Nanostructured La-Doped SAPO-34 Catalyst for Conversion of Methanol to Light Olefins

A series of nanostructured LaAPSO-34 catalysts was synthesized with different Si/Al ratios via hydrothermal method. La incorporation into zeolite framework could result in reduction of catalyst acidity and causing the enhancement of catalyst life time. The as-synthesized catalysts were characterized by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET and FTIR techniques and tested for methanol to light olefins (MTO) process. XRD results showed that the crystallinity intensified by increasing the Si/Al ratio up to 0.2. Afterwards, it declined and FESEM images revealed that by increasing Si/Al ratio, the growth of the cube-shaped chabazite particles was be more complete. The presence of the constituent elements and uniform distribution of them were observed by EDX analysis. BET results showed that by increasing Si/Al ratio, specific surface area of the nanostructured LaAPSO-34 catalysts increased. FTIR spectrums confirmed framework vibrations of chabazite in different Si/Al ratios. The obtained results of catalytic performance tests illustrated that increasing the Si/Al ratio from 0.1 to 0.3 led to enhancement of catalyst life time. Moreover, it has been found that by increasing the reaction temperature, methanol conversion increased. For the most active catalyst, Si/Al=0.3, the complete conversion was obtained at T=400-500°C. Moreover, by increasing Si/Al ratio, light olefins selectivity of nanostructured LaAPSO-34 catalysts declined to approximately 60% after 600, 2000 and 2600 min time on stream, respectively.