Integrating dehydrogenation of alkanes with selective hydrogen combustion – A sustainable route for olefin production using tandem catalysis

With the fast depletion of oil-based feedstocks and the huge abundance of underutilized Shale gas and natural gas, direct dehydrogenation of alkanes (DDH) is extensively explored as an alternative on-purpose route for olefins production. In this regard, innovative approaches, such as tandem catalysis at nanoscale offers an environmentally friendly route for sustainable production of olefins and other high values chemicals. This contribution presents the recent advances connected to coupling of the DDH with selective hydrogen combustion (SHC) to circumvent the thermodynamic challenge that inherently constrained the process to low single-pass conversion. Precisely, the work covers application of sequential reactors/beds to enable intermittent SHC, application of redox oxides in oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) mode, and application of tandem catalysis at nanoscale to couple DDH and SHC via utilizing zeolite-encapsulated systems and application of redox SHC catalysts interfaced with DDH catalysts. The insights and perspectives provided herein can potentially guide in the formulation and development of efficient tandem catalysts to further promote the process.