Aromatization of light paraffins over Ga-containing MFI-type catalyst

Aromatization of light paraffins such as propane and butane was investigated on MFI-type catalysts containing Ga as an active component. Even with less amount of Ga loading, Ga ion-exchanged MFI exhibited higher selectivity for aromatics, mainly benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX), than that of H-Ga-Silicate. This may be attributed to the presence of Al in Ga ion-exchanged MFI which increases the catalyst acidity. Further development was done by preparing H-Ga, Al-bimetallosilicate with the purpose of minimizing the catalyst preparation procedure. It has been found that H-Ga, Al-bimetallosilicate having Si/Ga ratio of 155 and Si/Al ratio of 40 exerted considerably high selectivity for aromatics, ca. 64% for BTX. This selectivity was comparable to that of H-Ga ion-exchanged MFI with the same amount of Ga loading. However, the bimetallosilicate catalyst can be prepared in only one step crystallization, which minimizes the catalyst preparation procedure.