Enhanced Performance of Zn-Sn/HZSM-5 Catalyst for the Conversion of Methanol to Aromatics

The conversion of methanol to aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) was performed over HZSM-5-supported bimetallic Zn-Sn catalysts. The results indicated that Sn species preferentially healed the defects in HZ crystals to create new active sites. The catalyst with Zn species markedly enhanced the aromatization performance but easily produced heavy coke. Thus, an optimized catalyst with 1 wt% Zn and 1 wt% Sn exhibited improved catalytic performance in terms of selectivity and BTX yield compared with a catalyst with a single metal. Consequently, the BTX yield was 64.1 % under the reaction conditions of 0.1 MPa and 0.8 h(-1) methanol weight hourly space velocity at 450 A degrees C.