355
Over the last two decades, there has been a turnaround in this sector because of
a surge in shale gas production [2] along with various other new sources of methane/
methanol such as natural gas, coal, coal bed methane, and others. These developments ensured the streamlined production of methanol for which the commercially
viable Fischer-Tropsch process exists. The availability of methanol opened the possibility for the huge source of petrochemical feedstocks by making the MTH process efficient for light olefin production. These small molecules act as a major
precursor for a wide range of useful products relevant to polymers, petrochemicals,
fuels, commodities, fine chemicals, and others [2]. Current trends suggest the huge
possibility for ethene (C 2
=
), polypropylene (C 3
=
), and 1-butene (C 4
=
). The global
market sizes are 146 billion [Polaris Market research report, 2020–2026], 116 billion [Grand View research, 2020–2027], and 2 billion [Report Buyer, Report ID:
5820653, Feb 2020], respectively, with an anticipated compounded growth rate of
9.8%, 3.1%, and 6.8% for 2019. Current global demands for olefins are met by
steam cracking of Naptha or heavier hydrocarbons which might be challenging in
the future. It requires an effort to boost the growth of the methanol-to-olefin (MTO)
process as another vertical to circumvent the supply-demand gap. This has led to a
significant interest in the research community to focus on making the process economically viable by resolving intriguing dynamics of classical catalysis triad,
namely, Structure-Property-Performance. The commercial feasibility of the MTO
process is heavily dependent on the performance which is evaluated by conversion
of reactant, selectivity toward the desired product, and a lifetime of the catalyst.
Overwhelmingly, nanoporous zeolite catalysts emerged as a material of interest and
extensive work is under progress to improve the holistic efficacy of the process. A
comprehensive view of the current state-of-art in the MTO process suggests that a
synergistic and symbiotic approach by scientists from a varied background such as
material design, reaction engineering, and mathematical computation is required to
resolve the challenge. Here, we will layout the typical heuristics of exploring design
principles involved in the MTO process that are complex and intriguing.
The catalytic life cycle of the MTO process requires optimization at three different
fronts. These include catalyst design, reaction intermediate control, and product distribution. These disparate facets are interconnected and need simultaneous multipronged
approach to obtain the best results. However, it pins down to designing a catalyst that
controls the intermediates to produce the desired product. For the same, a detailed
understanding of the intermediates and products dynamics in relation to catalyst properties becomes an absolute necessity. To this end, we will explore heuristics which
impacts MTO reaction and can be tuned to obtain better performance.
2 Catalyst Synthesis and Design
Aluminosilicate molecular sieves have occupied center stage as an MTO catalyst.
High thermal stability, shape selectivity owing to the confined space, and tunable
acid sites offer attractive opportunities to explore vast design space for
Shifting Trend of Rational Design Heuristics for Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) Catalysts
Over the last two decades, there has been a turnaround in this sector because of
a surge in shale gas production [2] along with various other new sources of methane/
methanol such as natural gas, coal, coal bed methane, and others. These developments ensured the streamlined production of methanol for which the commercially
viable Fischer-Tropsch process exists. The availability of methanol opened the possibility for the huge source of petrochemical feedstocks by making the MTH process efficient for light olefin production. These small molecules act as a major
precursor for a wide range of useful products relevant to polymers, petrochemicals,
fuels, commodities, fine chemicals, and others [2]. Current trends suggest the huge
possibility for ethene (C 2
=
), polypropylene (C 3
=
), and 1-butene (C 4
=
). The global
market sizes are 146 billion [Polaris Market research report, 2020–2026], 116 billion [Grand View research, 2020–2027], and 2 billion [Report Buyer, Report ID:
5820653, Feb 2020], respectively, with an anticipated compounded growth rate of
9.8%, 3.1%, and 6.8% for 2019. Current global demands for olefins are met by
steam cracking of Naptha or heavier hydrocarbons which might be challenging in
the future. It requires an effort to boost the growth of the methanol-to-olefin (MTO)
process as another vertical to circumvent the supply-demand gap. This has led to a
significant interest in the research community to focus on making the process economically viable by resolving intriguing dynamics of classical catalysis triad,
namely, Structure-Property-Performance. The commercial feasibility of the MTO
process is heavily dependent on the performance which is evaluated by conversion
of reactant, selectivity toward the desired product, and a lifetime of the catalyst.
Overwhelmingly, nanoporous zeolite catalysts emerged as a material of interest and
extensive work is under progress to improve the holistic efficacy of the process. A
comprehensive view of the current state-of-art in the MTO process suggests that a
synergistic and symbiotic approach by scientists from a varied background such as
material design, reaction engineering, and mathematical computation is required to
resolve the challenge. Here, we will layout the typical heuristics of exploring design
principles involved in the MTO process that are complex and intriguing.
The catalytic life cycle of the MTO process requires optimization at three different
fronts. These include catalyst design, reaction intermediate control, and product distribution. These disparate facets are interconnected and need simultaneous multipronged
approach to obtain the best results. However, it pins down to designing a catalyst that
controls the intermediates to produce the desired product. For the same, a detailed
understanding of the intermediates and products dynamics in relation to catalyst properties becomes an absolute necessity. To this end, we will explore heuristics which
impacts MTO reaction and can be tuned to obtain better performance.
2 Catalyst Synthesis and Design
Aluminosilicate molecular sieves have occupied center stage as an MTO catalyst.
High thermal stability, shape selectivity owing to the confined space, and tunable
acid sites offer attractive opportunities to explore vast design space for
Shifting Trend of Rational Design Heuristics for Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) Catalysts