Catalytic performance of sustainable bifunctional GaZn/ZSM-5 catalyst for LPG Aromatization

This study explores the performance of bimetal Ga-Zn impregnated on green ZSM-5 and commercial ZSM-5 to convert liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to aromatics. Initially, the activity of Ga-impregnated GZSM-5 (2Ga/GZSM-5) was evaluated and compared with various structured catalysts, halloysite clay nanotubes (2Ga/Hall), hierarchical MCM-41 (2Ga/HierMCM-41), mesocellular aluminosilicate foam (2Ga/AlMSU-F), and zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (2Ga/ZIF-8). The experiments were conducted using an LPG feed at a flow rate of 10 mL/min and 550 °C. Subsequently, the effect of Zn co-impregnation on 2Ga/GZSM-5, was investigated. Finally, a sustainable catalyst derived from green Ga-Zn metal nanoparticles synthesized from Tribulus leaves on GZSM-5 (2GGa0.5Zn/GZSM-5) was studied. The results revealed that 2Ga/GZSM-5 exhibited the highest aromatics yield of 72.64 % with a BTEX selectivity of 61.10 %. Among the bimetallic catalysts, 2Ga0.5Zn/GZSM-5 achieved the highest aromatics yield of 76.00 % with a BTEX selectivity of 44.38 %. This study highlights the potential of sustainable green metal nanoparticles combined with ZSM-5 for efficient LPG-to-aromatics conversion.