Realizing mesoporous *MRE zeolites using polyethylene glycol and their catalytic evaluation in palm oil and polyethylene cracking

Abstract

The *MRE zeolite is one of the zeolite frameworks that has garnered significant attention in the catalytic industry due to its unique properties. Nevertheless, the micropores in *MRE can lead to faster deactivation. Therefore, in order to improve the catalytic performance, the presence of mesopores in *MRE zeolites is urgently needed, considering the diffusion resistance that may be caused by their micropores. Herein, we fabricated the mesoporous *MRE zeolite using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400, 4000, and 5800 as a mesoporogen agent. The result exhibits that *MRE zeolite with the inclusion of PEG was successfully synthesized, which is confirmed by XRD and FTIR analysis. Moreover, TEM and BET analysis also validate the presence of mesopores. As a result, the mesopore *MRE zeolite assisted with PEG-4000 (ZM-4000) hold the optimum index hierarchy factor up to 1.000 which proving the presence of mesopores with preserved micropores. The generated mesoporous *MRE zeolite then used for the first time in gasoline production. Related to the IHF value, the mesoporous ZM-4000 showed excellent catalytic performance in palm oil cracking into gasoline with liquid product yield of 1.3 times higher than conventional *MRE zeolite (ZM). Although gasoline dominated the overall yield of all catalysts, the light cycle oil and heavy cycle oil yield of mesoporous *MRE zeolite were improved compared to the ZM sample. These results show the generate mesopores were able to facilitate the heavy molecules. The *MRE zeolite also tested by LDPE cracking and showed the exceptional catalytic performance compared to the ZM which confirming by the E_obs of 241.63 kJ mol⁻¹. This finding may point out the future direction of *MRE mesostructured zeolite tailoring strategy with PEG as an effective way for realization catalysts for industrial applications.