A research team from the university of Lille investigated bifunctional catalysts for the conversion of syngas into light olefins using Flowrence technology.

Light olefins play a key role as the small building blocks allowing the chemical industry to produce chemicals and materials. Mostly, crude oil is refined to form light olefins, but an alternative route uses syngas (CO and H2) as reactant. This usually leads to the formation of the undesired by-product in the form of methane. Using bifunctional catalysts based on zirconia and silver, the reaction was steered towards light olefins, thus improving the overall reaction efficiency.

The researchers used transient kinetic experiments and Flowrence high-throughput technology to develop the reaction leading to a steep enhancement in the selectivity towards light olefins and a significant reduction of methane production.