Selective lower alkane oxidation remains a grand challenge of catalysis. ZSM-5, a well known industrial catalyst, shows high activity in the direct low temperature aqueous phase oxidation of ethane to acetic acid. Detailed mechanistic work shows that ethanol and ethylene is also formed directly from ethane which is in contrast to the case of methane oxidation in which methyl hydroperoxide is the reaction intermediate. This is an important finding as it suggests that the active sites in the catalyst can be tuned to selectively produce ethanol, a desireable commodity chemical. Indeed, the preparation of specific iron species in ZSM-5 channels will be shown to promote the direct formation of ethanol. Ethylene selectivity can be greatly increased by the incorporation of copper into the catalyst and in this way these metal loaded zeolites can be used to generate different products at conversions upwards of 30% with low COx selectivities (<5%).

New dimensions in ZSM-5 catalysis - mechanistic insights in low temperature ethane oxidation

247th National Meeting (2014)

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