Despite the ever-growing demand for benzene–toluene–xylene (BTX), the alternative route of production from tree-borne oils is rarely investigated and poorly understood. Here, we have synthesized a Zn-loaded Y-zeolite catalyst for the continuous production of bio-BTX from tree-borne oils (nonedible seed oil), e.g., neem oil. Our approach involves low-temperature selective cracking–dehydrogenation–aromatization of neem oil over metal-supported catalysts to xylene-rich aromatics. The physicochemical properties of the prepared catalyst were characterized using powder XRD, N2 physisorption, TEM, NH3-TPD, XPS, Py-FTIR, solid-NMR, and TG analyses. Mesoporous Y-zeolites with a pore diameter of 7.4 Å showed better selectivity toward aromatics and were found to be the most effective catalyst for the aromatization process, especially for BTX. The aromatic yield was found to increase with the addition of Zn, and the highest conversion of 90–94% with an ∼75% BTX yield was achieved with the ZnY catalyst. During aromatization, a sizable number of short alkanes and olefins were also obtained on acidic Y-zeolites. The off-gas composition shows the presence of ∼45% C2–C4 olefins with 8.9% H2. The incorporation of Zn species can promote the dehydrogenation activity, and the subsequent aromatization required a suitable pore network. The optimized ZnY catalyst inspires the formation of toluene and xylenes, inhibiting the formation of benzene and gaseous alkanes.

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Density functional theory (DFT) used to study the encapsulation of copper(II)phthalocyanine and chlorine-substituted copper(II)phthalocyanine to a zeolite-Y framework. Changes occurring in the redox properties, as well as the red shift of the time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) spectra, point out the influence of encapsulation on the geometric parameters of the complexes. Also, the TD-DFT calculations show good agreement with the energy changes occurred in the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. DFT-based descriptors are used for scrutinizing the reactivity of the encapsulated complexes and a mechanism of the glycidol formation is proposed based on the energetics involved in the transformation.