Direct conversion of CO2 to a jet fuel over CoFe alloy catalysts

Lei Zhang; Yaru Dang; Xiaohong Zhou; Peng Gao; Alexander Petrus van Bavel; Hao Wang; Shenggang Li; Lei Shi; Yong Yang; Evgeny I Vovk; Yihao Gao; Yuhan Sun

doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100170

Direct conversion of CO₂ to a jet fuel over CoFe alloy catalysts

Innovation (Camb). 2021 Sep 29;2(4):100170. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100170. eCollection 2021 Nov 28.

Authors

Lei Zhang^{1

2}, Yaru Dang^{1

3}, Xiaohong Zhou^{3

4}, Peng Gao^{1

3}, Alexander Petrus van Bavel⁵, Hao Wang¹, Shenggang Li^{1

3

4}, Lei Shi¹, Yong Yang^{1

4}, Evgeny I Vovk⁴, Yihao Gao¹, Yuhan Sun^{1

4

6}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, China.
² China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201306, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
⁵ Shell Global Solutions International B.V., 1031HW Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶ Shanghai Institute of Clean Technology, Shanghai 201620, China.

Abstract

The direct conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) using green hydrogen is a sustainable approach to jet fuel production. However, achieving a high level of performance remains a formidable challenge due to the inertness of CO₂ and its low activity for subsequent C-C bond formation. In this study, we prepared a Na-modified CoFe alloy catalyst using layered double-hydroxide precursors that directly transforms CO₂ to a jet fuel composed of C₈-C₁₆ jet-fuel-range hydrocarbons with very high selectivity. At a temperature of 240°C and pressure of 3 MPa, the catalyst achieves an unprecedentedly high C₈-C₁₆ selectivity of 63.5% with 10.2% CO₂ conversion and a low combined selectivity of less than 22% toward undesired CO and CH₄. Spectroscopic and computational studies show that the promotion of the coupling reaction between the carbon species and inhibition of the undesired CO₂ methanation occur mainly due to the utilization of the CoFe alloy structure and addition of the Na promoter. This study provides a viable technique for the highly selective synthesis of eco-friendly and carbon-neutral jet fuel from CO₂.

Keywords: CoFe alloys; C–C coupling; carbon dioxide hydrogenation; heterogeneous catalysis; jet fuel.