Modulation of SAPO-34 Property with Activated Seeds and Its Enhanced Lifetime in Methanol to Olefins Reaction

Solvent-free synthesis of zeolites has received extensive attention in recent years, because it is advantageous over conventional hydrothermal synthesis. Nevertheless, SAPO-34, a micropore zeolite, prepared by this method does not satisfy the catalytic lifetime requirements of the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) reaction. Herein, an improved solvent-free approach was developed to synthesize SAPO-34 catalysts with enhanced MTO reaction performance, in which acid-etched seed crystals were introduced to modulate the physico-chemical properties of the zeolite via crystallization kinetics regulation. The results indicated that the SAPO-34 samples prepared from seed-containing precursor gels show considerably higher crystallinity, larger surface area, but lower strong acid site density than the parent sample. In particular, the catalytic lifetime of the SAPO-34 catalyst prepared from activated seeds was remarkably prolonged to 480 min, which was significantly superior to that of the parent sample (40 min).