Pores4Olefins · Engineering Pores for Sustainable Catalytic Olefins Upgrading

Engineering Pores for Sustainable Catalytic Olefins Upgrading

The research project of this fellowship deals with chemical reactions to upgrade alkenes (hydrocarbons with C-C double bonds, also known as olefins). Reactions that form new C-C bonds are particularly significant among those involving alkenes to obtain value-added chemicals. For instance, metathesis reactions of alkenes create new molecules by breaking and rearranging the C-C double bonds of the initial alkenes, while the dimerization and hydroarylation of alkenes allow C-C coupling of two molecules to yield one heavier molecule. Currently, all of these reactions are paramount, taking place on an industrial scale, for the production of a plethora of chemicals, ranging from small alkenes used in the manufacturing of plastics and polymers to alkylbenzenes used for the synthesis of surfactants and detergents. These reactions are carried out in the industry in the presence of catalysts. Nevertheless, in most cases, although the processes are practical from an industrial point of view, the understanding of how the reactions occur is still very poor. Increasing the understanding of these reactions is therefore key to developing new catalytic processes that are not only more economically efficient but also environmentally friendly (less energetically demanding, avoiding or forming fewer side-products and residues, using non-toxic catalysts, etc.). Following this line, this project of fundamental research is focused on gaining new knowledge regarding the heterogeneous catalysis of metathesis, dimerization, and hydroarylation of alkenes. The research is mainly centered on better understanding what the active sites that catalyze these reactions are and how they are formed. With the benefit of this knowledge, it will be possible to develop new catalysts and processes that perform these types of reactions more efficiently and even combine more than one of these reactions in a single stage (tandem catalysis). Specifically, this research studies the metathesis and dimerization reactions of light alkenes to develop a single-stage process for the production of propene from ethene using catalysts based on Mo and Ni. Developing new routes for the production of propene is very important because, with the current demand for propene, existing technologies may not meet market needs in the coming decades. The alkene hydroarylation catalyzed by Ni or Co is also examined for the production of linear alkylbenzenes that might be used, especially, for the synthesis of more biodegradable surfactants and detergents. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of these reactions is required to develop new efficient processes for the upgrading of platform molecules obtained from biomass feedstock, which are more complex (because of O2 presence) than those obtained from fossil resources that are ubiquitously found in the current chemical industry.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз