Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is one of the major conversion technologies in the oil refinery industry, and the largest commercial catalytic process that uses zeolite materials.
Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is the major conversion process used in oil refineries to produce valuable hydrocarbons from crude oil fractions. Because the demand for oil-based products is ever increasing, research has been ongoing to improve the performance of FCC catalyst particles, which are complex mixtures of zeolite and binder materials. Unfortunately, there is limited insight into the distribution and activity of individual zeolitic domains at different life stages. Here we introduce a staining method to visualize the structure of zeolite particulates and other FCC components. Brønsted acidity maps have been constructed at the single particle level from fluorescence microscopy images. By applying a statistical methodology to a series of catalysts deactivated via industrial protocols, a correlation is established between Brønsted acidity and cracking activity. The generally applicable method has clear potential for catalyst diagnostics, as it determines intra- and interparticle Brønsted acidity distributions for industrial FCC materials.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.