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Cobalt carbide nanoprisms for direct production of lower olefins from syngas
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Cobalt carbide nanoprisms for direct production of lower olefins from syngas
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Journal Article
Cobalt carbide nanoprisms for direct production of lower olefins from syngas
2016
Overview
Lower olefins are hydrocarbons that are widely used in the chemical industry, and can be generated from syngas by the ‘Fischer–Tropsch to olefins’ process; here, a new catalyst is described that can generate lower olefins from syngas with high selectivity, with little formation of undesirable methane.
Lower olefines—and not much methane—from biomass
The lower olefins—chiefly ethylene, propylene and butylene—are starting materials for many plastics and other industrial products. They are usually obtained by cracking hydrocarbon feedstocks, so as petroleum reserves become depleted the urgency to switch to alternative feedstocks such as biomass increases. The 'Fischer–Tropsch to olefins' (FTO) process produces lower olefines from syngas—a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide derived from biomass, coal and natural gas—but at the same time produces large amounts of unwanted methane. Here Liangshu Zhong and colleagues describe a new catalyst for the FTO conversion. Formed from cobalt carbide nanoprisms, the catalyst is active in mild reaction conditions, is highly selective for lower olefins and, critically, produces very little methane.
Lower olefins—generally referring to ethylene, propylene and butylene—are basic carbon-based building blocks that are widely used in the chemical industry, and are traditionally produced through thermal or catalytic cracking of a range of hydrocarbon feedstocks, such as naphtha, gas oil, condensates and light alkanes
1
,
2
. With the rapid depletion of the limited petroleum reserves that serve as the source of these hydrocarbons, there is an urgent need for processes that can produce lower olefins from alternative feedstocks
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
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. The ‘Fischer–Tropsch to olefins’ (FTO) process has long offered a way of producing lower olefins directly from syngas—a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that is readily derived from coal, biomass and natural gas
3
,
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
. But the hydrocarbons obtained with the FTO process typically follow the so-called Anderson–Schulz–Flory distribution, which is characterized by a maximum C
2
–C
4
hydrocarbon fraction of about 56.7 per cent and an undesired methane fraction of about 29.2 per cent (refs
1
,
10
,
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,
12
). Here we show that, under mild reaction conditions, cobalt carbide quadrangular nanoprisms catalyse the FTO conversion of syngas with high selectivity for the production of lower olefins (constituting around 60.8 per cent of the carbon products), while generating little methane (about 5.0 per cent), with the ratio of desired unsaturated hydrocarbons to less valuable saturated hydrocarbons amongst the C
2
–C
4
products being as high as 30. Detailed catalyst characterization during the initial reaction stage and theoretical calculations indicate that preferentially exposed {101} and {020} facets play a pivotal role during syngas conversion, in that they favour olefin production and inhibit methane formation, and thereby render cobalt carbide nanoprisms a promising new catalyst system for directly converting syngas into lower olefins.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
