Silicoalumino Phosphate SAPO-34 Grown on SiC Foam as Structured Catalyst for Methanol Dehydration to Dimethyl Ether
Mohamed Al Mohanned Mohamed Elamin , Oki Muraza, Zuhair Malaibari
كلية الكيميائيات والمواد-جامعة الملك فهد للبترول والمعادن · السعودية
SAPO-34 layers were successfully grown on β-SiC foam with medium specific surfacearea,using a microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis method (MAHyS) forapplications as a structured catalyst. Preliminary investigations on SAPO-34 phase puritywere conducted to select the appropriate concentrations and protocol to grow pure SAPO-34 on SiC foams. SAPO-34/SiC foams composite were obtained via a microwaveassistedsynthesis route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to confirm the formation ofthe composite. Microwave irradiation time, number of coating cycles and pretreatmentswith the template solution and the slurry were studied to optimize the growth andcoverage of SAPO-34 crystals on the SiC foam surface. SAPO-34 crystals with cubicmorphologies having 7 μm average size were obtained after 6 h microwave irradiationtreatment at 180oC. However, multi coating steps were required to obtain a full coverageof SAPO-34 crystals. Template pretreatments of the host material (SiC foams)significantly improved the loading of crystals on the support surface. Full coverage ofSAPO-34 on SiC foams was obtained after 2 times of coatings, which is mostly attributedto the template layer formed on the foam surface which induced the heterogeneousnucleation on the support. The SAPO-34/SiC foam structured catalyst exhibited enhancedactivity and stability in methanol dehydration to dimethyl ether, which was carried out in a fixed bed reactor. The supported zeolite displays the same intrinsic activity compared tothe powder zeolite and the dehydration activity obtained on the template coated catalyst,SAPO-34/SiC-T, is higher than the one obtained on the slurry coated catalyst, SAPO-34/SiC-S