Novel Composite Spherical Granulates with Catalytic Outer Layer and Improved Conversion Efficiency and Selectivity

The granulation procedure of a catalyst powder is a crucial step in designing a high‐quality catalyst granulate for industrial applications. New granulation processes have been developed that make it possible to form granulates with a very narrow particle size distribution and high sphericity. The innovative granulation techniques offer a great potential to produce layered catalysts with inert cores and an active shell. The novel spherical granules consist of an inexpensive inert core coated with an active catalyst material. New core shell granules with an accurately designed spherical geometry have been synthesized and compared to conventional homogeneous spherical granules of the same shape. The conversion of methanol to olefins has been used as a test reaction to validate the efficiency of these promising granulates. Layered spherical granulates consisting of an inexpensive inert core and a catalytically active zeolite shell were synthesized via a spray granulation technique. These novel granulates showed a better performance in methanol to olefin conversion than conventional homogeneous granulates. Improved conversion efficiency could be demonstrated for synthesized as well as for commercial catalysts.