Ambient-pressure hydrogenation of CO2 into long-chain olefins

Impact Factor:

14.919

DOI number:

10.1038/s41467-022-29971-5

Journal:

Nat. Commun.

Key Words:

alternative energy, carbon dioxide, catalyst, chemical reaction, decentralization, optimization

Abstract:

The conversion of CO2 by renewable power-generated hydrogen is a promising approach to a sustainable production of long-chain olefins (C4+=) which are currently produced from petroleum resources. The decentralized small-scale electrolysis for hydrogen generation requires the operation of CO2 hydrogenation in ambient-pressure units to match the manufacturing scales and flexible on-demand production. Herein, we report a Cu-Fe catalyst which is operated under ambient pressure with comparable C4+= selectivity (66.9%) to that of the state-of-the-art catalysts (66.8%) optimized under high pressure (35 bar). The catalyst is composed of copper, iron oxides, and iron carbides. Iron oxides enable reverse-water-gas-shift to produce CO. The synergy of carbide path over iron carbides and CO insertion path over interfacial sites between copper and iron carbides leads to efficient C-C coupling into C4+=. This work contributes to the development of small-scale low-pressure devices for CO2 hydrogenation compatible with sustainable hydrogen production.

Co-author:

Menglin Wang, Yanan Wang, Xinlong Ma, Lei Luo, Yue Chen, Kaiyuan Fan, Yang Pan

First Author:

Zhongling Li, Wenlong Wu

Correspondence Author:

Hongliang Li, Jie Zeng

Document Type:

SCI

Volume:

13

Issue:

1

Page Number:

2396

Translation or Not:

no

Date of Publication:

2022-05-03

Links to published journals:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29971-5