Chemical Engineering and Catalysis

Catalysis in oil and gas

The catalysts we've created contain silicon (or germanium) and metal (copper, iron, cobalt, etc.). They are able to easily break the bonds between carbon and hydrogen atoms both in saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons (the main components of oil and gas) and turn them into valuable products: alcohols, acids, and ethers. This is a topical subject – some works on the activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds were shortlisted for the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, says Alexey Bilyachenko, one of the co-authors of the workCatalytical experiments presented in this work show that a pentanuclear copper-containing compound is effective in homogeneous catalyst of the oxidation of secondary alcohol (to ketones) and alkanes (to alkylhydroperoxides) with the use of peroxides. Notably, these reactions take place in mild conditions, that is, after minor heating and without increased pressure. The discovered methods of oil and gas processing by means of hydrocarbons activation with metal-containing compounds have an obvious advantage over the usual cracking and pyrolysis technologies that required expensive temperature- and pressure-resistant equipment.