Direct production of olefins from syngas with ultrahigh carbon efficiency

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 CH4 and CO2 (<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.

Hailing Yu, Caiqi Wang, Tiejun Lin, Yunlei An, Yuchen Wang, Qingyu Chang, Fei Yu, Yao Wei, Fanfei Sun, Zheng Jiang, Shenggang Li, Yuhan Sun, Liangshu Zhong