Self-assembly of monodispersed hierarchically porous Beta-SBA-15 with different morphologies and its hydro-upgrading performances for FCC gasoline

Abstract

Micro-mesoporous Beta-SBA-15 materials with platelet, sphere, short-rod and long-rod morphologies were in situ synthesized and used as the catalyst supports for hydro-upgrading of FCC gasoline. The characterization results revealed that the Beta-SBA-15 composites possessed both SBA-15 and Beta structures. And the materials with different morphologies exhibited different Brönsted and Lewis acid sites and pore sizes due to their corresponding synthesis conditions. The platelet Beta-SBA-15 which possessed short mesochannels with a large pore diameter had high diffusion ability. The sphere Beta-SBA-15 with more mesopore cavities, large surface area and suitable acidity exhibited outstanding isomerization and aromatization abilities. The catalytic results confirmed that the platelet CoMo/ABS-PL exhibited a high hydrodesulfurization (HDS) conversion (97.6%) while the sphere CoMo/ABS-SP catalyst showed the superior research octane number (RON) preservation ability, which were better than those of CoMo/ABS-SR (short-rod) and CoMo/ABS-LR (long-rod) catalysts. The excellent hydrodesulfurization, isomerization and aromatization abilities of CoMo/ABS-PL and CoMo/ABS-SP were attributed to the special morphology, mesochannels and appropriate acidity properties of the catalysts. Thus, the as-synthesized platelet and sphere Beta-SBA-15 materials have potential application in FCC gasoline hydro-upgrading.