Propene is a key platform chemical in the global supply chain of commodity chemicals, used, for example, in the synthesis of polypropene, polyurethanes and polypropionitrile. Current industrial propene manufacturing processes rely on unselective and energy-intensive catalytic steam cracking of naptha or shale gas. A more attractive route is the ethene to propene reaction (ETP) which offers excellent atom economy and favourable thermodynamics. The potential use of bio-ethene as a feedstock also makes the ETP process attractive in terms of sustainability. We show now that a tandem catalytic ensemble of solid-state molecular organometallic (SMOM) crystalline pre-catalysts can be deployed under batch or flow conditions for the ethene to propene process (ETP). These catalysts operate at ambient temperature and low pressure, via sequential ethene dimerisation, butenes isomerisation and cross-metathesis. Under flow conditions the on-stream ethene conversion (55 %), initial propene selectivity (92 %), stability (71 % selectivity after 7 h) and low temperature/pressures are competitive with the best-in-class heterogeneous systems.
Biography:
Originally from the southwest of the UK, Dr. Kris Altus moved to London to pursue his chemistry degree at London Metropolitan University. He then moved back to the southwest and obtained an MRes from the University of Bristol working in Prof. Robin Bedford’s group on cobalt catalysed C-H functionalization reactions. This was followed by PhD studies in Vancouver (UBC), working on platinum complexes relevant to C-H and C-X functionalization reactions in Prof. Jennifer Love’s group. Finally, Kris made his way back to the UK where he is currently a PDRA in the Weller Group at the University of York working on solid-state molecular organometallic chemistry.