Preparation and characterization of template-free mordenite type zeolite and comparison of m-xylene isomerization reaction over mordenite and SAPO-11

In this work, Mordenite zeolite was successfully synthesized with Si/Al ratio of 18 in absence of organic template. The hydrothermal method was applied for synthesis under optimum conditions: 24 h synthesis time, 180°C temperature and 2 days aging time. The obtained zeolite was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Fourier Transforms infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The prepared sample had total (BET) surface area of 331.63 m2g-1, whereas total pore volume was 0.278 cm3g-1. The catalytic performance of this catalyst was investigated for meta-xylene isomerization reaction in a fixed bed reactor at the 10 bars Pressure, 380°C temperature and 3.35 h-1 Weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of feed. The results compared with a commercial SAPO-11 catalyst (Si/Al = 20) and showed that the mordenite gave better Para/Ortho ratio (63%) and fewer amount of xylene loss (2.11%) compared to SAPO-11.