Direct production of olefins from syngas with ultrahigh carbon efficiency.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36217004.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-33715-w and PMC identifier 9550792.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Syngas conversion serves as a competitive strategy to produce olefins chemicals from nonpetroleum resources. However, the goal to achieve desirable olefins selectivity with limited undesired C1 by-products remains a grand challenge. Herein, we present a non-classical Fischer-Tropsch to olefins process featuring high carbon efficiency that realizes 80.1% olefins selectivity with ultralow total selectivity of CH<sub>4</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> (<5%) at CO conversion of 45.8%. This is enabled by sodium-promoted metallic ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles with negligible water-gas-shift reactivity. Change in the local electronic structure and the decreased reactivity of chemisorbed H species on Ru surfaces tailor the reaction pathway to favor olefins production. No obvious deactivation is observed within 550 hours and the pellet catalyst also exhibits excellent catalytic performance in a pilot-scale reactor, suggesting promising practical applications.