Realumination of dealuminated HZSM-5 zeolite by citric acid treatment and its application in preparing FCC gasoline hydro-upgrading catalyst

This article describes a novel citric acid treatment method for realuminating dealuminated HZSM-5 zeolite and its application in enhancing the performance of the zeolite derived FCC gasoline hydro-upgrading catalysts. A series of modified HZSM-5 zeolites were prepared by streaming and/or acid treatments and the influences of the different modification methods on the acidity, pore structure and catalytic performance of the modified HZSM-5 zeolite supported catalysts were compared in the present investigation. The results showed that compared with the single HCl or citric acid treatment, the steaming treatment, and the steaming/HCl treatments, the citric acid treatment after steaming exclusively increased the amount of framework Al species due to its realumination effect on the steamed HZSM-5 zeolite. This realumination effect of the citric acid treatment could optimize the ratio of framework Al to extra-framework Al in the steamed HZSM-5 zeolite and thus greatly improve the acidity distribution and pore structure of the corresponding catalyst. The catalytic performance assessments of the different zeolite supported catalysts for FCC gasoline hydro-upgrading revealed that the catalyst supported on the steaming/citric acid treated HZSM-5 zeolite had balanced initial and long-term activities in hydrodesulfurization, hydroisomerization and aromatization, high liquid yield and improved gasoline road octane number. The superior catalytic performance of the catalyst could be closely related to its suitable ratio of framework Al to extra-framework Al achieved by the combinational use of the steaming dealumination and the citric acid realumination, fully demonstrating the effectiveness of the steaming and citric acid treatments in optimizing the physicochemical properties and catalytic performance of HZSM-5 zeolite supported catalysts.