Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — porous crystal structures made of metal ions linked together by organic molecules — could significantly improve the energy efficiency of ethylene production.
Ethylene — the highest-volume organic chemical produced worldwide — is typically made by refining crude oil. However, along with the ethylene, refining also produces a substantial amount of acetylene, which is toxic to the catalysts used to polymerize the ethylene into polyethylene. Thus, the ethylene-acetylene stream is further processed to convert acetylene into ethylene. This step requires an expensive palladium catalyst and consumes a lot of energy.
“Catalytic transformation of acetylene into ethylene has several weaknesses,” says Banglin Chen, the Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the Univ. of Texas at San Antonio. “For one, the catalysts are costly,” Chen...
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