Synergetic effects of nano-boehmite and Y nano-zeolite on catalytic cracking of residue oil

Boehmite nanoparticles and NaY nanozeolite were synthesized by co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods, respectively, and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TG-DTA, BET, and SEM techniques. XRD and BET analyses demonstrated the formation of boehmite nanoparticles with a surface area of 350 m²/g and high crystallinity NaY nanozeolite with a surface area of 957 m²/g. In order to evaluate the effect of the content of the mesoporous boehmite nanoparticles on the catalytic performance of the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) catalyst, alumina active matrix-based and silica inactive matrix-based catalysts were prepared. Results actually demonstrated that the acidity of the zeolite composition improved with the addition of boehmite nanoparticles. On the other hand, in equal zeolite content, the alumina active matrix-based catalyst possessed higher acidity (NC₃₀B₂₀, 3.44 mmol NH₃/g catalyst) than the silica inactive matrix-based catalyst (NC₃₀B₀, 2.31 mmol NH₃/g catalyst). Microactivity tests (MAT) demonstrated that, with equal zeolite content, active matrix-based catalysts exhibited higher catalytic performance than inactive matrix-based catalyst. Furthermore, the active matrix-based catalyst (NC₃₀B₂₀) with a surface area of 370 m²/g showed the optimum catalytic performance in the RFCC process. The synthesized NC₃₀B₂₀ catalyst with 20 wt% mesoporous boehmite nanoparticles as an active matrix and 30 wt% zeolite nanoparticles balanced with silica had the highest gasoline yield (42 wt%) and gasoline selectivity (65.1 wt%). The catalytic performance test results showed that in equal MAT conversion (almost 64 wt%), the synthesized NC₃₀B₂₀ catalyst had higher catalytic performance than the commercial catalyst.