Green ethylene production from bio-ethanol with acidity controlled Barium exchanged zeolite Y catalyst

Considering the environmental concern and public legislation, the current focus has been shifted to utilizing renewable resources to produce valuable chemicals. Here in, we synthesized a series of Ba-Y zeolite catalysts by incorporating different amounts of Ba (2-7 wt.%) into H-Y zeolite via an ion-exchanged method and subsequently studied these catalysts for the selective bio-ethanol conversion to ethylene. The synthesized catalysts were characterized in detail using PXRD, FTIR, NH₃-TPD, CO₂-TPD, Pyridine IR, BET, ICP-OES, XPS, TEM, SEM-EDX, UV-Vis, ²⁷Al-NMR, and TGA. The catalytic conversion was executed by using 50-95 % bio-ethanol feed in a fixed bed flow reactor. The prepared Ba-Y catalysts had improved catalytic performance in relation to the parent Y zeolite within the range (200 – 350 °C). The maximum ethylene yield of >98 % was achieved at low reaction temperature of 280 °C and 10 g/ml/min contact time with 5 wt.% incorporation of Ba in HY catalyst after 15 h TOS. The modification in acidic sites of the H-Y zeolites catalyst by Ba addition is responsible for the high conversion and selectivity, controlling the side reactions and improved anti-coke capacity.