Light olefins are key components of modern chemical industry and are feedstocks for the production of many commodity chemicals widely used in our daily life. It would be of great economic significance to convert light alkanes, produced during the refining of crude oil or extracted during the processing of natural gas selectively to value-added products, such as light alkenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, etc., through catalytic dehydrogenation. Among various catalysts developed, Ga-modified ZSM-5-based catalysts exhibit superior catalytic performance and stability in dehydrogenation of light alkanes. In this mini review, we summarize the progress on synthesis and application of Ga-modified ZSM-5 as catalysts in dehydrogenation of light alkanes to olefins, and the dehydroaromatization to aromatics in the past two decades, as well as the discussions on in-situ formation and evolution of reactive Ga species as catalytic centers and the reaction mechanisms.
Keywords: Gallium; ZSM-5; dehydroaromatization; dehydrogenation; light alkanes; olefins.