Synthesis and Characterization of Crystalline NaY-Zeolite from Belitung Kaolin as Catalyst for n-Hexadecane Cracking

Abstract

Crystalline sodium Y (NaY) zeolite has been synthesized using alternative natural source of aluminate and silicate, extracted from natural Belitung kaolin. Prior to use, the natural kaolin was pretreated to obtain fragmented metakaolin and extracted silica. Synthesis was conducted with the addition of NaY gel (two types of NaY seeds were used, prepared from colloidal sillica or sodium silica water) using hydrothermal method for 21 h at 100 °C. The characterization on the as-synthesized zeolites confirmed that the one prepared using colloidal silica-seed has closer structure similarity to NaY zeolite that was synthesized using pro analysis silicate and aluminate sources. Thus, the rest of the synthesis of NaY was carried out using colloidal silica-NaY seed. The NaY zeolites then were converted to HY, through ammonium-exchange followed by calcination, to be tested as cracking catalysts using n-hexadecane as a probe molecule. It shows that HY from metakaolin and extracted silica gives high performance, i.e., n-hexadecane conversion of 58%–64%, also C5-C12 percentage yield and selectivity of 56%–62% and 98%. This work has shown the potential to utilize kaolin as alternative silicate aluminate sources for crystalline zeolite synthesis and to obtain inexpensive and environmentally friendly catalyst materials.