Grand canonical monte carlo simulations of ethanol conversion to propylene over zeolite catalysts

Abstract

The transformation of ethanol to propylene (ETP) was investigated over H-ZSM-5 (40) and H-LEV (40) catalysts. For H-ZSM-5 (40), the propylene yield kept constant at about 20.0% during 8 h. For H-LEV (40), higher initial propylene yield reached 34.0%. However, there is almost no propylene obtained over H-LEV (40) catalyst after 2 h. H-ZSM-5 (40) catalyst exhibited higher stability than H-LEV (40). The lower stability of H-LEV (40) is probably due to coke deposition. The reactant and products adsorption performances in the ethanol conversion reaction over H-ZSM-5 (40) and H-LEV (40) catalysts were studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Results show that the higher adsorption amount of ethanol, ethylene and propylene in H-LEV (40) led to the more difficult desorption of products and higher content of coke deposition.