Template-Free Synthesis of Hierarchical Zeolites for Petrochemical and Refining Processes

Zeolites are wildly used catalysts in various refinery and petrochemical processes because of their inherently strong acidity and uniform micropore structure. Unfortunately, the microporous structure of traditional zeolites often suffer from serious diffusion problems for bulky reactants/products, leading to low utilization of their active sites and poor catalytic activity, Introducing mesopores into zeolites, with a combination of micropores and mesopores, could overcome such diffusion limitation while retain the size and shape selectivity. Here, we report a low-cost and environmental friendly synthetic synthesis route for mesoporous zeolites without the use of template. The produced mesoporous zeolites exhibit remarkably higher catalytic activity than their conventional counterparts. This could be very useful in various upgrading processes of crude oil.