Sustainable production of light olefins from greenhouse gas CO2 over SAPO-34 supported modified cerium oxide

Abstract

The direct supply of light olefins from CO 2 hydrogenation has led to a tremendous interest in its important roles in reducing CO 2 emissions. We study here a significantly effective, reliable and multifunctional catalyst, NiCu/CeO 2 -SAPO-34, capable of directly converting CO 2 to light olefins with selectivity up to 76.6% (C2H4 = 22.7%, C3H6 = 35.5%, and C4H8 = 18.4%), while only 2.1% CH 4 with CO 2 conversion of 15.3% at H 2 /CO 2 of 3, 12 L.g cat −1 h −1 , 375 °C and 20 bar. Under optimum reaction conditions, the CO selectivity is lower than 65%. Physiochemical characterization of the catalyst was performed using BET, NH 3 -TPD, H 2 -TPR, XRD, TEM, and SEM techniques. Compared to the XRD patterns of SAPO-34 and NiCu/CeO 2 , the composite showed all characteristic XRD peaks of both samples. In addition, our designed hybrid catalyst also has beneficial catalytic stability, which can operate for 90 h without loss of apparent activity. A hybrid catalyst composed of NiCu/CeO 2 and SAPO–34 zeolites was employed for CO 2 hydrogenation to light olefins. Under optimal conditions, the selectivity for light olefins was up to 76.6%. • Light olefin production is a novel route for the effective use of H 2 and CO 2 . • NiCu/CeO 2 -SAPO-34 catalyst was used for direct CO 2 hydrogenation to light olefins. • A selectivity for olefin was up to 76.6% with 2.1% CH 4 and 64.3% CO. • The impact of the three factors for CO 2 conversion into lower olefins was analyzed.