Effect of silicon to aluminum ratio on the selectivity to propene in methanol conversion over H-ZSM-5 zeolites

A series of H-ZSM-5 zeolites with a silicon to aluminum ratio of 50–4000 but similar crystal size were synthesized and characterized by XRD, N2 sorption, NH3-TPD and Py-FTIR; the intrinsic effect of silicon to aluminum ratio on the selectivity to propene in the conversion of methanol to propene (MTP) was investigated. The results show that a complete conversion of methanol can be initially achieved over H-ZSM-5 with a silicon to aluminum ratio from 50 to 1600 and then the initial conversion of methanol decreases progressively with further increasing the silicon to aluminum ratio. Meanwhile, the selectivity to propene increases monotonically with an increase in the silicon to aluminum ratio of H-ZSM-5 for MTP with a complete methanol conversion, suggesting that a high Si/Al ratio for H-ZSM-5 may enhance the propagation of the alkene-based methylation/cracking cycle relative to the arene-based methylation/dealkylation cycle in MTP. A critical value of acid density, viz., [AS]S, is required to achieve the maximum propene selectivity for MTP with a complete methanol conversion; this critical [AS]S value is 0.175 μmol/m2 for the H-ZSM-5 zeolite under current reaction conditions.