preparation of metal exchanged crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphates materials by exposing a physical mixture of a metal oxide or a metal salt, or a

combination thereof, and a crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate material having an ion exchange capability to an atmosphere containing ammonia.

The ion exchange capability of metalloaluminophosphates originates from the fact that some of phosphorous or aluminum atoms in the crystalline microporous framework having a formal valence state of 5+ or 3+, respectively, are isomorphously substituted by atoms with a different formal charge. This creates a negative charge in the metalloaluminophosphate, which is counter balanced by a positive ion, e.g. H ⁺ , NH ₄ ⁺ , Na ⁺ or K ⁺ . Copper and iron cations can also form suitable cations to counterbalance this negative charge, which is the reason that Cu and Fe exchanged metalloaluminophosphates can be produced by the method described above.

The term metalloaluminophosphate refers to an alumino- phosphate material in which some of the phosphorous or aluminium in the crystalline framework, or combinations thereof, is isomorphously replaced by one or more atoms chosen from the group consisting of metals, silicon and germanium. Known examples of such materials are silico aluminophosphates (SAPO) , titanium aluminophosphates , stannoaluminophosphates .

Metalloaluminophosphates materials exchanged with Fe or Cu are effective catalysts for the catalytic reduction of ΝΟχ , e.g in the exhaust of power plants, or in the exhaust of diesel engines in both stationary and

automotive applications. The best known example of such a material is SAPO-34 exchanged with Cu .

The catalytic reduction of NO _x is referred to as SCR (selective catalytic reduction) . The two best known varieties of the SCR process to reduce NO _x are (1) hydrocarbon SCR (HC-SCR) , in which hydrocarbons are used as a reductant, and (2) ammonia-SCR (NH3-SCR) in which ammonia is used as a reductant. In the case of

hydrocarbon-SCR, the source of the hydrocarbons is the diesel fuel, also used for the diesel-engine, or residual hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas due to incomplete

combustion. The common technology for using NH ₃ -SCR is by injection of urea in the exhaust gas stream, which decomposes to produce the required N¾ for the SCR reaction. Cu-SAPO-34 is a known catalyst for both types of SCR reaction.

A general method to produce metal exchanged crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphates is by contacting a crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate with a solution of the desired metal ion followed by filtration, washing, drying and calcination. Consequently, following this general procedure, contacting a crystalline

microporous metalloaluminophosphate with an appropriate solution containing Cu or Fe ions, such as Cu nitrate, Cu acetate, Fe nitrate, Cu or Fe sulfate, with a microporous metalloaluminophosphate in the H ⁺ , NH ₄ ⁺ form, or ion- exchanged with a different cation, will usually produce a material that shows catalytic activity for the SCR reaction with hydrocarbons or N¾ . The choice of the anion of the metal salt is in principle arbitrary, but usually anions are chosen such that sufficient solubility is obtained, is easily removed during the production, is safe to handle, and does not interact with the zeolite in an unfavourable way.

The conventional method for introduction of metal ions in crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphates is often not very effective. It is known that to obtain a

sufficiently high activity in the selective catalytic reduction with a SAPO-34 material, activation at high temperatures (>750°C) is needed. (P. N. R. Vennestr0m, A. Katerinopoulou, R. R. Tiruvalam, A. Kustov, P. G. Moses, P. Concepcion, A. Corma, ACS Catal . 2013, 3, 2158-2161).

It has been shown that such a heating procedure causes a redistribution of the Cu throughout the SAPO-34 crystals, implying that initial aqueous exchange is not trivial. An alternative procedure to introduce ions in crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials is by solid state ion exchange, which involves making a physical mixture of the crystalline microporous metalloalumino ^¬ phosphate material and a source of the cations to be introduced into the microporous crystals, followed by some appropriate treatment that will drive the cations into the microporous materials. (G.L. Price, in:, J.R. Regalbuto (Ed.) _/ Catalyst Preparation: Science and

Engineering, CRC Press, Boca Raton, London, New York, 2007, pp. 283-296.) Patent Application US 2013/0108544 discloses a method for the production of an ion exchanged microporous

silicoaluminophosphate material by producing metal oxide or metal salt particles on the surface of SAPO-34

crystals, followed by heating at 500-800 °C, preferably 650-750 °C to produce the metal cations, for a period of 12-72 hours. The metal oxide particles or metal salt particles are formed on the surface of the SAPO-34 crystals by impregnation or precipitation. This procedure is different from a conventional ion exchange, since the actual ion exchange step is performed after removing the liquid needed for impregnation or deposition. The

procedure prescribes a high temperature and long heating times. The procedure can be executed in dry or wet air. A variation of this method is described in D. Wang, L.

Zhang, J. Li, K. Kamasamudram, W.S. Epling, Catal . Today (2013), DOI 10.1016/j . cattod .2013.11.040 and M. Zamadics, X. Chen, L. Kevan, J. Phys . Chem. (1992) 5488. Instead of producing the metal oxide particles on the surface of the SAPO crystals, the SAPO-34 in the H form was physically mixed with CuO and heated to 800°C for 12 h. The

accomplishment of Cu ion exchange could be confirmed in both publications.

Patent EP955080 discloses a method for the introduction of Cu, Fe, Co, Mn, Pd, Rh, or Pt in zeolites with a Si/Al ratio larger than 5 by physically mixing (i) ammonium salts, H ₃ / H ₄ ⁺ - zeolites, or N-containing compounds, and (ii) a zeolite with a Si/Al ratio larger than 5, and

(iii) an active compound chosen from a compound of one or more of the aforementioned metals at room temperature and atmospheric pressure and heated to at least 300 °C until the ion exchange process is completed, followed by cooling to room temperature. During heating, the mixture is preferably exposed to an ammonia or amine-containing atmosphere, with a heating rate higher than 10 K per minute .

We have observed that preparation of metal exchanged microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials is much improved when carrying out solid state ion exchange with a physical mixture of an oxide and/or salt of a metal and a microporous silicoaluminophosphate is performed in an atmosphere containing N¾. The presence of ammonia makes it possible to execute the solid state exchange at a temperature as low as 250 °C. This is surprising in view of the fact that usually temperatures in the range 600- 800 °C are needed to activate a Cu-SAPO-34 material for the SCR reaction. Furthermore, the method of the

invention also allows for using a temperature below 300 °C, which is the lower temperature limit for solid state ion exchange disclosed in patent EP955080 for alumina- silicate zeolites, where it usually is much easier to introduce metal ions.

The advantage of the present invention is that SCR active crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials can be produced at significantly lower temperatures, thus reducing the risk of damaging the these materials during the introduction of the metal ions. Pursuant to the above observation, this invention provides a solid state ion exchange method for the preparation of a metal exchanged crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate or mixtures containing metal exchanged microporous metalloaluminophosphates materials comprising the steps of

providing a dry mixture containing

a) one or more metalloaluminophosphates starting

materials that exhibit ion exchange capacity and

b) one or more metal compounds;

heating the mixture in a gaseous atmosphere containing ammonia to a temperature and for a time sufficient to initiate and perform a solid state ion exchange of ions of the metal compound and ions of the crystalline microporous material;

and obtaining the metal-exchanged microporous

metalloaluminophosphate material or mixtures containing the metal-exchanged microporous metalloaluminophosphate material .

The one or more metalloaluminophosphate starting

materials contain in an embodiment of the invention one or more metals chosen from the group silicon, titanium, tin, zinc, magnesium, manganese, cobalt or iron.

Useful microporous metalloaluminophosphate starting materials can be any microporous metalloaluminophosphate material with an ion exchange capability. Preferably, a part of the phosphorous and possibly aluminium atoms in the microporous aluminophosphate material are replaced by Si, to produce a silicoalumino- phosphate .

Preferably, the microporous metalloaluminophosphate starting materials have the crystal structure designated as CHA, AEI, AFI, AEL, AST, AFR, AFO and FAU . The best known examples of such a material are SAPO-34, SAPO-44, SAPO-18. In an embodiment the microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials are in the H, or NH ₄ -form.

In another embodiment the microporous

metalloaluminophosphate starting materials contain an organic structure directing agent.

In still an embodiment the metal compounds in the dry mixture for the preparation of the metal exchanged metal exchanged crystalline microporous metalloaluminophos- phate(s) are metal oxides, metal nitrates, metal

phosphates, metal sulfates, metal oxalates, metal acetates, or combinations thereof.

Useful metals in these metal compounds are include Fe, Cu, and Co, or combinations thereof.

In an embodiment these metals are chosen from Fe and/or Cu. In an embodiment the metal compounds are CuO or CU ₂ O or a mixture thereof. Another embodiment is the exposure of the said mixture to an atmosphere containing ammonia, wherein the content of ammonia in the atmosphere is between 1 and 5000 vol. ppm. A further embodiment is the exposure of the said mixture to an atmosphere containing ammonia, wherein the oxygen content in the atmosphere is 10 vol% or lower.

Another embodiment is the exposure of the said mixture to an atmosphere containing ammonia, wherein the water content in the atmosphere is 5 vol% or lower.

In a preferred embodiment the mixture is heated in the atmosphere containing ammonia to a temperature below 300 °C.

In still a preferred embodiment the mixture is heated in the gaseous atmosphere containing ammonia to a

temperature between 100°C and 250°C.

A further aspect of the invention is metal exchanged microporous metalloaluminophosphate material or mixtures of metal exchanged microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials obtained by a method according to anyone of the above disclosed aspects and embodiments of the invention. Still an aspect of the invention is a method for the removal of nitrogen oxides from exhaust gas by selective catalytic reduction with a reductant, comprising

contacting the exhaust gas with a catalyst comprising a metal exchanged crystalline microporous metalloalumino ^¬ phosphate material or mixtures of metal exchanged

crystalline microporous metalloaluminophosphate materials obtained by a method according to anyone of the above described embodiments of invention.

Preferred reductants comprise ammonia or a precursor thereof or hydrocarbons.

Example 1

A catalyst was prepared by mixing CuO and H-SAPO-34 material to a content of 12.5 wt% CuO. A sample of the catalyst was placed in a quartz-U tube reactor, and heated to 250 °C for 10 h in an atmosphere containing 500 ppm N¾ in N ₂ . After heating, the catalyst was cooled down to 160 °C and exposed to a gas mixture of 500 ppm NO, 533 ppm NH ₃ , 5vol% H ₂ 0, 10vol% 0 ₂ in N ₂ . The

temperature was then stepwise increased to 180, 200, and 220 °C and the conversion of NO was measured at a space velocity of 2700 NL/g cat h, as a record for the

material's SCR activity. The measured NO conversions at different temperatures are given in Table 1. It is noted that the SCR-active SAPO-34 material has not been heated further than 250 °C after addition of the Cu . This example illustrates that the method of the invention provides a way to produce an active catalyst based on SAPO-34 without the need of activation at elevated temperatures (>700 °C) , which is the case for conventionally ion-exchanged SAPO-34

materials [P. N. R. Vennestr0m, A. Katerinopoulou, R. R. Tiruvalam, A. Kustov, P. G. Moses, P. Concepcion, A.

Corma, ACS Catal . 2013, 3, 2158-2161.] after addition of Cu to the microporous material. Table 1. Ox conversion at different temperatures

following 10 h heating of a mixture of CuO and H-SAPO-34 at 250 °C in 500 ppm NH ₃ .

Example 2

For comparison, a catalyst similar to the one mentioned in Example 1 was prepared by mixing CuO and H-SAPO-34 material to a content of 12.5 wt% CuO. A sample of the catalyst was placed in a quartz-U tube reactor, and heated to 250 °C for 10 h in a pure ₂ atmosphere. After heating, the catalyst was cooled down to 160 °C and exposed to a gas mixture of 500 ppm NO, 533 ppm N¾, 5vol% H ₂ O, 10vol% O ₂ in N ₂ . The temperature was then stepwise increased to 180, 200, and 220 °C and the conversion of NO was measured at a space velocity of 2700 NL/g cat h, as a record for the material's SCR activity. The measured NO conversions at different temperatures are given in Table 2. The NOx conversions obtained after treatment of the mixture of CuO and H-SAPO-34 in pure N ₂ are much lower than those obtained after a comparable treatment in the presence of 500 ppm N¾, given in

Example 1. This shows that the presence of N¾ is

essential to be able to produce Cu-SAPO-34 by solid state ion exchange at low temperatures. As the measurement of the SCR activity implies exposure of the system to a low concentration of ammonia, some formation of Cu-SAPO-34 occurs during the measurement, and a low conversion of NOx is measured, entirely in line with the present invention .

Table 2. NOx conversion at different temperatures

following 10 h heating of a mixture of CuO and H-SAPO-34 at 250 °C in nitrogen only.

Example 3.

This example shows that an active metal exchanged

metalloaluminophosphate catalyst for SCR can be prepared below 300 °C by the method of the invention using CU2O . A dry mixture of 10 wt . % CU2O and a H-SAPO-34 zeolite was prepared by grinding in a mortar. A sample of this mixture was placed in a quartz U-tube reactor, and heated to a predetermined temperature between 100 and 250 °C in nitrogen. After reaching the desired temperature, 500 ppm NH3 was added to the gas stream for 5 hours. After this treatment the catalytic activity of the resulting

material was determined by cooling to 160 °C in nitrogen, and exposing the powder mixture to a gas atmosphere consisting of 500 ppm NO, 533 ppm NH ₃ , 5vol% H ₂ 0, 10vol% O2 in N2 , and the NOx conversion was measured at a space velocity of 2700 Nl/g cat h, as a record for the

material's SCR activity. Then, the reaction temperature was increased to 180 and 200 °C and at each temperature the NOx conversion was determined under the same conditions .

The NOx conversion in the SCR reaction over the metal exchanged zeolite prepared at 100, 150, 200 and 250 °C respectively in 500 ppm NH3 is given in Table 3.

Table 3. Ox conversion over CU ₂ O + H-SAPO-34 mixtures after treatment in NH3 for 5 h at various temperatures

Pretreatment NOx conv. @ NOx conv. @ NOx conv. temperature °C 160 °C (%) 180 °C (%) 200 °C (%)

100 0.9 1.0 2.2

150 0.9 2.9

200 2.3 3.8 7.9

250 7.4 14.2 26.0