Recently, Professor Ye Wang’s group made new breakthrough in the design of highly selective catalysts for the conversion of synthesis gas (syngas, H₂/CO). Their results, entitled “Direct and Highly Selective Conversion of Synthesis Gas to Lower Olefins: Design of a Bifunctional Catalyst Combining Methanol Synthesis and Carbon-Carbon Coupling” were published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201601208) and were selected as a VIP paper (very important paper). The work was also chosen for Press Release of this week with a title of “Building Blocks in One Step” in the web page of Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

Transformation of syngas is the core process in the utilization of non-petroleum carbon resources, such as coal, shale gas and biomass, for sustainable production of clean liquid fuels and high-value chemicals. Selectivity control is one of the biggest challenges in the area. Prof. Wang’s group has been working on the selectivity control in syngas conversions. In the previous work, they have demonstrated that the design of bifunctional catalysts capable of catalyzing CO hydrogenation to heavier hydrocarbons and selective C-C cleavage of heavier hydrocarbons is effective for the production of gasoline or diesel fuel with selectivity breaking the ASF distribution (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2565-2568; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 5200-5203; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 4553-4556).

For the product of lower olefins (ethylene, propylene and butenes), many studies have been devoted to Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process by using Fe catalysts. However, FT products generally follow a statistical distribution known as the Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) distribution, with a maximum selectivity of 58% for C2-C4 hydrocarbons. Based on the previous study, Prof. Wang’s group recently succeeded in combining methanol synthesis and C-C coupling reaction for the direct synthesis of lower olefins from synthesis gas. They have discovered that the integration of the Zr–Zn binary oxide, which is responsible for the activation of CO to methanol or methoxide, and SAPO-34 responsible for the selective C-C coupling can realize the direct synthesis of lower olefins from syngas with excellent selectivity. The C2-C4 olefin selectivity can reach 74% with a CO conversion of 11% at 673 K, breaking the ASF distribution. They have demonstrated that the control of the hydrogenation ability of the two components in the bifunctional catalyst is crucial to obtaining high C2-C4 selectivity. The proximity of the two components also plays a key role in the direct conversion of syngas to lower olefins. Related research further enriches the concept of selectivity control by reaction coupling in the transformation of syngas, and provides a new synthetic route of light olefins.

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB933102), the Natural Science Foundation of China (91545203, 21433008 and 21503174) and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials.

Paper link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201601208/full
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Press Release link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3773/homepage/press/201607press.html