For Immediate Release
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new catalyst that improves the efficiency of converting butane, a component of natural gas, into butadiene – a building block in synthetic rubber and a variety of plastics.
从丁烷创建丁二烯是很棘手的。现有的techniques for converting butane into butadiene either create a bunch of byproducts that nobody wants, or convert only a small fraction of the butane into butadiene each time the butane passes through the chemical reactor. As a result, you have to run the butane through the same process repeatedly.
北卡罗来纳州立大学的作品兼美铝化学与生物分子工程学教授范·李（Fanxing Li）说：“就能源和金钱而言，这是一个昂贵的过程。”“因为在每次通过化学反应器之后，您必须将丁烷和副产品与丁烷分开 - 这需要大量的能量 - 并再次将丁烷通过反应器运行。”
Because of this, there are very few plants devoted to producing butadiene. Instead, much of the butadiene used in manufacturing comes from plants where butadiene is collected as a byproduct of other reactions.
“That’s a problem, because the demand for butadiene far outstrips the available supply,” Li says. “We wanted to come up with a more efficient way of converting butane into butadiene, making butadiene production facilities more commercially viable – and this work is an important step in that direction.”
Specifically, the researchers have engineered a catalyst that converts more butane into butadiene with each pass through the reactor, compared to previous catalysts. The work was done using an oxidative dehydrogenation reaction.
李说：“我们能够在一次通行证中将多达42.5％的丁烷转化为丁二烯。”“我们以前可以找到的最佳表现约为30％。这是重要的第一步，但我们将其视为概念证明 - 我们认为我们仍然可以做更多的事情来提高此过程的选择性。”
The catalyst itself is a lithium bromide shell surrounding a core of lanthanum strontium ferrite. The reaction requires a modular reactor, and conversion takes place at between 450 and 500 degrees Celsius.
“We’re open to partnerships to further explore the potential of this work,” Li says.
The paper, “碱金属卤化物涂层的钙钛矿氧化还原催化剂，用于厌氧氧化的脱氢作用n-butane,” is published in the open-access journal科学进步. First author of the paper is Yunfei Gao, a former Ph.D. student and postdoc at NC State who is now on faculty at the East China University of Science and Technology. The paper was co-authored by Xijun Wang, a former postdoc at NC State who is now at Northwestern University; Noel Corolla, a former undergrad at NC State; Tim Eldred, a research associate at NC State; Arnab Bosea, a former Ph.D. student and postdoc at NC State; and Wenpei Gao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State.
这项工作是在国家科学基金会的支持下完成的，根据赠款编号2116724；美国能源部快速研究所，根据赠款编号DE-EE007888-05-6；以及北卡罗来纳州的肯南工程，技术与科学研究所。
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Note to Editors:The study abstract follows.
“Alkali metal halide coated perovskite redox catalysts for anaerobic oxidative dehydrogenation ofn-butane”
Authors: Yunfei Gao, East China University of Science and Technology and North Carolina State University; Xijun Wang, Noel Corolla, Tim Eldred, Arnab Bose, Wenpei Gao, Fanxing Li, North Carolina State University
Published: July 27,科学进步
Abstract:Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) ofn- 丁烷具有有效产生丁二烯而不平衡限制或可乐形成的潜力。尽管进行了广泛的研究工作，但单次丁二烯产量在常规催化ODH中限制为<23％2. This article reports molten LiBr as an effective promoter to modify a redox-active perovskite oxide, i.e. La0.8Sr0.2FeO3（LSF），用于化学循环 - 氧化脱氢n-butane (CL-ODHB). Under the working state, the redox catalyst is composed of a molten LiBr layer covering the solid LSF substrate. Characterizations and ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations indicate that peroxide species formed on LSF react with molten LiBr to form active atomic Br, which act as reaction intermediates for C-H bond activation. Meanwhile, molten LiBr layer inhibits unselective CO2formation, leading to 42.5% butadiene yield. The redox catalyst design strategy can be extended to CL-ODH of other light alkanes such asiso- 丁烷转换为iso-butylene, providing a generalized approach for olefin production.
