Abstract
The socioeconomic dependence on natural gas must be reduced to comply with the stricter carbon emissions requirements. However, avoiding natural gas from the future energy mix is easier said than done. To bridge this gap, lignocellulosic biomass-derived biomethane (aka. “renewable natural gas”) represents an elegant solution to this contemporary problem. Owing to the increased industrial interest in hierarchically structured zeolites for biomethane valorization, through this work, we explore the technical feasibility and challenges associated with methane dehydroaromatization over Mo-loaded on both microporous and hierarchical zeolite ZSM-5. Hierarchical zeolites were prepared using inexpensive and environmentally benign glucose as a secondary organic structure directing agent, leading to two shapes (coffins and hexagonal bars) with comparable physicochemical properties. Although a similar catalytic performance was obtained over (nano-sized) microporous and hexagonal bar-derived zeolites, coffin-shaped zeolite catalysts led to lower activity and slower deactivation. Herein, catalyst deactivation was governed by inter- and intra-particle diffusional properties.
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•Deactivation phenomenon of hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites was explored during the biomethane-derived dehydroaromatization.•Hierarchical zeolite was synthesized via cost-effective and environmentally benign glucose as meso-OSDA.•The synthesis protocols delivered different shapes/sizes for hierarchical zeolites.•Hierarchical zeolites bear similar physicochemical properties yet delivered non-identical MDA performance..•The impact of crystal size and intra-/inter-particle diffusions properties were examined.