Heat treating a molecular sieve and catalyst

This invention relates to a method of heat treating a molecular sieve material and its corresponding catalyst composition. In particular, this invention relates to a method of heat treating a crystalline molecular sieve to provide hardness yet resist catalyst deactivation. Disclosed is a method of heat treating a molecular sieve. The method comprises providing a template-containing molecular sieve, heating the molecular sieve under conditions effective to remove a portion of the template from the molecular sieve, and cooling the heated molecular sieve to leave an amount of template effective to cover catalytic sites within the molecular sieve. A catalyst composition is also provided which comprises a molecular sieve having a microporous structure and a binder, wherein between 10 and 90 vol % of the microporous structure is occupied by a material, the material comprising a template or a carbonaceous residue of a template, and the catalyst composition exhibits a Davison Index of not greater than 30.