​​King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

The Institute of Chemical Technology focuses its research activity in two main areas (energy and sustainability) in which catalysis is a key point. At the ITQ, catalysis is applied mainly in crude oil refinement and petrochemistry, but also in biomass transformation and chemical processes to obtain drugs and fragrances. In this way, multifunctional well structured materials (including microporous/mesoporous) have been developed in the last years, in which several strategies in the synthesis of these catalysts have been proposed. Here, it will be presented a summary of then, with special attention to the use of transition metal oxides as catalysts. For example, it will be presented a comparative study on the importance in catalytic behavior of vanadium-based catalysts (including supported ones, and V-containing microporous/mesoporous materials), which have been studied for the oxidative selective activation of alkanes, the partial oxidation of H2S to sulfur, the combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or in the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane. But also, it will be presented how metals as Au can be used as selective catalyst in oxidation reactions. More recently, our group has developed metal promoted tungsten bronzes as a new type of multifunctional catalysts for the selective transformation of hydrocarbons and O-containing compounds (with especial attention to alcohols).  In this way, it will be also shown the importance in the strategies of synthesis in order to adequate structure and catalytic performance.

 

In this workshop it will be presented the work carried out by our group on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of multicomponent mixed metal oxides which can be effective catalysts in the selective oxidative activation of hydrocarbons.  In this way, to type of catalysts will be mainly discussed: i) Mo,V-based bronze catalysts (such as MoVTe(Sb)NbO), especially those with orthorhombic or pseudo-hexagonal structures, which are active very selective in the (amm)oxidation of propane to acrylic acid and acrylonitrile and in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene; ii) W,V-based based catalysts (WVNbMoO), with an hexagonal tungsten bronze structure, which are active and selective in the one pot synthesis of acrylic acid from glycerol but also in other alchohols.  All of these catalysts can be defined as non-stoichiometric multifunctional metal oxides, Mo- or W-oxides based bronzes with specific structures, with vanadium as a key element in the activation of hydrocarbons, and in which the selectivity to partial oxidation products can be improved by tailoring the acid-base characteristics.  Accordingly, the workshop will be divided in three parts: i) Partial oxidation and ammoxidation of light alkanes: Key aspects in the development of effective catalysts; ii) Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. What should we do to have an industrial process? and iii) Selective aerobic transformation of alcohols over multifunctional tungsten oxides bronzes.

Jose M. Lopez Nieto is a Research Professor at the Institute of Chemical Techonology (ITQ) in the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). His current research involves the synthesis and characterization of structured materials and their application as heterogeneous catalysts in acid–base and redox reactions for petrochemical and biomass-derivatives processes.  Editor of Applied Catalysis A from 2006 is President of the Spanish Catalysis Society from 2013.

 

Courtesy: SAICSC-ACS