Catalytic improvement of biomass conversion: Effect of adding mesoporosity on MOR zeolite for esterification with oleic acid

Abstract

Catalytic processes play an important role in the valorization of biomass for the production of biofuels. In this context, the effect of desilication of MOR zeolite (H-MOR-D) on the esterification of oleic acid as a model reaction for biomass conversion was investigated. Zeolite catalysts were characterized by BET, TG, NH3-TPD, XRD, XRF, FTIR and 27Al MAS NMR analysis and the results showed that the alkaline treatment caused a decrease in crystallinity and removal of sites with greater acid strength of the zeolite precursor. The conversion of oleic acid into methyl oleate catalyzed by H-MOR was less (44%) than that obtained by the treated zeolite H-MOR-D (70%), suggesting that the catalytic activity in the MOR structure does not depend only on the high density of strong acid sites. DFT calculations showed that, bulky molecules suffer molecular distortions within the confined voids, consequently the adsorption enthalpy is highly unstable limiting the formation of intermediates and thus contributing to the lower reaction rate observed experimentally in H-MOR zeolite. Desilication should be considered in projects for the synthesis of new catalysts type zeolite for the conversion of biomass crude or pre-treated, in which bulky molecules prevail.