Alkane upgrading by metal metal-modified zeolites

The development of catalytic materials that can directly and efficiently convert abundant hydrocarbon resources to higher value products remains a major goal of academic and industrial research. In particular, developing routes that utilise methane as a source of carbon to upgrade other hydrocarbon streams is an opportunity to valorise this extremely cheap and abundant feedstock avoiding methane utilisation via the energy intensive production of synthesis gas.

Zeolites are widely used as catalysts in refinery and petrochemical processing due to their cost effective nature, robustness and the generally high reaction selectivities they exhibit. (Top. Catal., 2009, 52, 1131) Recent research has shown that metal-modified zeolites are able to activate methane under moderate conditions and that the resulting species can undergo subsequent reactions with other small molecules to form value added products.(ACS Catal., 2016, 6, 2965)

The aim of this project is to develop catalytic processes for the simultaneous conversion of methane and other hydrocarbons to higher chemical products. Targeted main group and transition metals, supported on industrially relevant zeolite frameworks will be explored, as will different methods of metal incorporation in order to improve the catalytic functionality and develop structure function models. Active site distributions will be tailored through synthetic methodologies such as selective ion exchange and organometallic grafting. Materials will be screened for alkane activation through spectroscopic techniques (e.g. solid state NMR and DRIFTS), followed by reactivity with small molecules such as ethylene, propylene, and toluene. Catalytic testing will be conducted on an operando DRIFTS facility and on flow reactors (e.g. FlowCat) housed within the group. The mechanisms of reaction will be determined through the use of isotope labelling studies.