(687f) Toward Rational Design of Hierarchical Beta Zeolites Via Cost-Effective Approaches

Saudi Aramco has the world’s largest crude oil production at more than 10 million barrels of oil per day. During the traditional downstream refinement process, zeolites are often used as catalysts due to their excellent hydrothermal stability and acidity in order to crack the hydrocarbons from crude oil into lower boiling point small molecules. Conventionally used zeolites are limited by their small micropore sizes and are unable to accommodate the larger substrates of crude oil, resulting in a vacuum residue that is often times flared off or burned for electricity. To address these challenges, hierarchical zeolites were conceived with the purpose of introducing additional porosity, usually in the mesopore range, by either top-down or bottom-up approaches. The top-down approach uses microporous zeolites that are post-synthetically leached to create hierarchical structures, while bottom-up approaches often involve more complicated templating routes, such as hard- or soft-templating strategies. As compared to the previous bottom-up templating methods, the top-down approach by post-synthetic base leaching is a highly reproducible, convenient, and cost-effective approach for the creation of hierarchical zeolites, which is favorable for commercial zeolite production. In this talk, the strategies of tailoring of the hierarchical beta structures of zeolites with different Al contents will be highlighted by using top-down post synthetic base leaching. The feasibility of achieving rational design of hierarchical zeolites will be discussed focusing on the mesopore creation and catalytic activities.