Paper by LSU Chemical Engineering Faculty, Team Offers New De-Carbonizing Solutions
August 2, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA – In a recently published paper in Chem, LSU Chemical Engineering Professor Kunlun Ding’s group and a team of researchers from Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Stony Brook University detail a breakthrough in carbon dioxide (CO2) and natural gas conversions. Their project could offer a new solution for de-carbonizing the chemical industry.
In the work titled, “CO2-Mediated Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane Enabled by Pt-Based Bimetallic Catalysts,” Ding and the team explain that propane, the third most abundant hydrocarbon component in shale gas, is the ideal feedstock for the “on-purpose” production of propylene, which is an important building block for the chemical industry. Commercial technologies for this production mainly adopt non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation processes, which are highly endothermic, and the per-pass propylene yield is limited by thermodynamic equilibrium.
The oxidative dehydrogenation of propane has been studied for decades as a means of overcoming the thermodynamic limitations, but that process results in overoxidation and waste of propane feedstock.
Enter the use of CO2 in oxidative dehydrogenation, allowing for researchers to overcome the issues of overoxidation and risk of explosion. In this method, hydrogen is consumed by CO2 via the reverse water-gas shift reaction, resulting in an improved per-pass propylene yield.
“In principle, the CO2-mediated oxidative dehydrogenation utilizes CO2 as a co-reactant,” Ding said. “The overall carbon emission is lower than the current commercial dehydrogenation process. This aligns with society’s long-pursued goal of [carbon capture, usage, and storage] by decarbonizing the chemical industry.
“The process still faces some challenges, including product separation. More research is needed to address these technical challenges.”
Going forward, Ding and the team plan to apply new catalyst synthesis techniques to accelerate the reaction kinetics and improve the catalyst stability so that they can bring the process closer to industrial use.
Their work is supported by an LSU-LIFT2 grant and the LSU Provost’s Funds for Innovation in Research.
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Contact: Joshua Duplechain
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