Catalyst fortified for high-temperature propylene production

This is the claim of scientists at Hokkaido University in Japan who said their catalyst design for propylene production is highly stable, even at 600°C. Their findings have been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Propylene is a raw material and building block for products including in textiles, plastics and electronics. It was originally produced as a by-product of breaking down saturated hydrocarbons using steam cracking, but this process no longer provides the quantities needed by industry.

CLICK FOR MORE FROM MATERIALS

More recently, the industry has been making propylene from shale gas, which contains a large amount of methane, and smaller amounts of ethane and propane. Propylene can be produced from propane by removing two hydrogen atoms from it through propane dehydrogenation, a process that requires temperatures of around 600°C. Platinum is widely used as a catalyst in propane dehydrogenation as it is very good at breaking hydrogen atoms away from carbon. A drawback is rapid deactivation by side reactions that occur at high temperatures.