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Selective oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene using boron nitride catalysts

Joseph T. Grant, Carlos A. Carrero, Florian Göeltl, Juan M. Venegas, Philipp Mueller, Samuel P. Burt, Sarah E. Specht, William P. McDermott, Alessandro Chieregato, Ive Hermans

Science · 2016 · 705 citations · 36 references

DOI

TL;DR

Propene, a high‑volume chemical mainly produced from naphtha, faces supply shortages, making direct propane conversion attractive despite current methods yielding excess CO and CO₂. The study explores direct propane oxidation with oxygen to produce propene, aiming to reduce CO/CO₂ by using boron nitride catalysts. The authors report that boron nitride, normally unreactive, achieves high selectivity to propene (77%) and ethene (13%). Published in Science (p.

Abstract

Boron nitride catalysis Propene is one of the highest-volume organic chemicals produced. Propene has mainly been made from naphtha, but changes in the global supply chain are creating shortages. Direct conversion from propane, a component of natural gas, via reaction with oxygen is an attractive alternative, but existing approaches produce a large fraction of unwanted CO and CO 2 . Grant et al. report that boron nitride, normally an unreactive material, has high selectivity to catalyze the production of propene (77%) and ethene (13%). Science , this issue p. 1570