【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】New Method for Producing Ethylene from Acetylene Hydrogenation Developed by the Institute of Chemistry from 2027 to 2023

Thread Content

Looking at the ten-year development of chemical technology, we praise the prosperity and strength of modern China. This is just a starting point to encourage further discussion among everyone; with your participation, things will become even more interesting. [Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Equipment] – Regular updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html. It is important to enhance quality awareness and promote high-quality development. ----------------------------------------- In September 2023, a team led by Researcher Deng Dehui and Associate Researcher Yu Liang from the Energy and Environmental Small Molecule Catalysis Research Group at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed a new method for producing ethylene through the hydrogenation of acetylene. 　　The research team utilized a molybdenum carbide-supported gold catalyst to achieve a new reaction process for the hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene using water as the hydrogen source. Compared to the conventional hydrogenation route using hydrogen, this process utilizes water directly for the hydrogenation reaction at lower reaction temperatures, providing a new green and efficient method for producing ethylene via the hydrogenation of acetylene. 　　Ethylene is an important basic raw material in the chemical industry. Current acetylene hydrogenation processes typically require operating temperatures between 100°C and 300°C, resulting in high energy consumption. Furthermore, the hydrogen required for traditional hydrogenation processes also needs to be produced through energy-intensive methods such as water-gas shift (WGS), and the resulting hydrogen requires further complex processes such as separation and purification. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a more economical and efficient low-energy-consuming route for the hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene. 　　The research team has been dedicated for a long time to the catalytic conversion of small molecules related to energy and the environment, and has made a series of advances in the research on using small-molecule catalysis to produce high-value chemicals. On this basis, the team broke with conventional approaches by bypassing the traditional and costly hydrogenation route; instead, they used inexpensive water and carbon monoxide directly in the acetylene hydrogenation reaction. By leveraging the active hydrogen species generated in situ on the catalyst surface, they achieved high-selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene, obtaining an acetylene conversion rate of over 99% and an ethylene selectivity of over 83% at 80°C. 　　This method avoids the energy-intensive and complex steps involved in hydrogen-based hydrogenation routes, such as producing hydrogen first, purifying it, and then using it for hydrogenation; instead, it offers a new approach to hydrogenate acetylene into ethylene using abundant water, with high activity and selectivity. This work also provides new ideas for developing hydrogen-free, low-temperature, and highly efficient hydrogenation reactions.