It is well known that urbanization and industrialization have resulted in the rapidly increasing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are a major contributor to the formation of secondary pollutants (e.g., tropospheric ozone, PAN (peroxyacetyl nitrate), and secondary organic aerosols) and photochemical smog. The emission of these pollutants has led to a large decline in air quality in numerous regions around the world, which has ultimately led to concerns regarding their impact on human health and general well-being. Catalytic oxidation is regarded as one of the most promising strategies for VOC removal from industrial waste streams. This Review systematically documents the progresses and developments made in the understanding and design of heterogeneous catalysts for VOC oxidation over the past two decades. It addresses in detail how catalytic performance is often drastically affected by the pollutant sources and reaction conditions. It also highlights the primary routes for catalyst deactivation and discusses protocols for their subsequent reactivation. Kinetic models and proposed oxidation mechanisms for representative VOCs are also provided. Typical catalytic reactors and oxidizers for industrial VOC destruction are further discussed. We believe that this Review will provide a great foundation and reference point for future design and development in this field.

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Recent Advances in the Catalytic Oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds: A Review Based on Pollutant Sorts and Sources.

Abatement of various types of VOCs by adsorption/catalytic oxidation: A review

An efficient and direct method of catalytic conversion of methane to liquid methanol and other oxygenates would be of considerable practical value. However, it remains an unsolved problem in catalysis, as typically it involves expensive or corrosive oxidants or reaction media that are not amenable to commercialization. Although methane can be directly converted to methanol using molecular oxygen under mild conditions in the gas phase, the process is either stoichiometric (and therefore requires a water extraction step) or is too slow and low-yielding to be practical. Methane could, in principle, also be transformed through direct oxidative carbonylation to acetic acid, which is commercially obtained through methane steam reforming, methanol synthesis, and subsequent methanol carbonylation on homogeneous catalysts. However, an effective catalyst for the direct carbonylation of methane to acetic acid, which might enable the economical small-scale utilization of natural gas that is currently flared or stranded, has not yet been reported. Here we show that mononuclear rhodium species, anchored on a zeolite or titanium dioxide support suspended in aqueous solution, catalyse the direct conversion of methane to methanol and acetic acid, using oxygen and carbon monoxide under mild conditions. We find that the two products form through independent pathways, which allows us to tune the conversion: three-hour-long batch-reactor tests conducted at 150 degrees Celsius, using either the zeolite-supported or the titanium-dioxide-supported catalyst, yield around 22,000 micromoles of acetic acid per gram of catalyst, or around 230 micromoles of methanol per gram of catalyst, respectively, with selectivities of 60-100 per cent. We anticipate that these unusually high activities, despite still being too low for commercial application, may guide the development of optimized catalysts and practical processes for the direct conversion of methane to methanol, acetic acid and other useful chemicals.

Mild oxidation of methane to methanol or acetic acid on supported isolated rhodium catalysts

Applications of Zeolites in Sustainable Chemistry

In the past decade or so, small-pore zeolites have received greater attention than large- and medium-pore molecular sieves that have historically dominated the literature. This is primarily due to the commercialization of two major catalytic processes, NOx exhaust removal and methanol conversion to light olefins, that take advantage of the properties of these materials with smaller apertures. Small-pore zeolites possess pores that are constructed of eight tetrahedral atoms (Si4+ and Al3+), each time linked by a shared oxygen These eight-member ring pores (8MR) provide small molecules access to the intracrystalline void space, e.g., to NOx during car exhaust cleaning (NOx removal) or to methanol en route to its conversion into light olefins, while restricting larger molecule entrance and departure that is critical to overall catalyst performance. In total, there are forty-four structurally different small-pore zeolites. Forty-one of these zeolites can be synthesized, and the first synthetic zeolite (KFI, 1...

Small-Pore Zeolites: Synthesis and Catalysis

Importance of platinum particle size for complete oxidation of toluene over Pt/ZSM-5 catalysts

Zeolite-based catalysts have been widely used in the conversion of biomass recently, but the catalytic yields of the desired products are strongly limited by the relatively small micropores of zeolite. Here, we reported a hierarchically porous ZSM-5 zeolite with micropore and b-axis-aligned mesopore-supported Ru nanoparticles (Ru/HZSM-5-OM) that are highly efficient for the hydrodeoxygenation of both small and bulky phenolic biomolecules to the corresponding alkanes. Compared with the conventional ZSM-5 zeolite-supported Ru catalyst, the high catalytic activities and alkane selectivities over Ru/HZSM-5-OM are attributed to the abundant exposed acidic sites in HZSM-5-OM with open mesopores. This feature is potentially important for future phenolic bio-oil upgrading.

Mesoporous ZSM-5 Zeolite-Supported Ru Nanoparticles as Highly Efficient Catalysts for Upgrading Phenolic Biomolecules

Removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has recently been attracted much attention, and catalytic combustion is one of good methods for solving this problem. In this research, we show a successful preparation of mesoporous Beta zeolite-supported Pt catalyst (Pt–R/Beta-H) and its superior performance in the catalytic combustion of toluene. N 2 sorption isotherms show that the mesopore volume of Pt–R/Beta-H reaches 0.18 cm 3 /g, and TEM images exhibit that the Pt particles exist in both micropores and mesopores of the sample. Interestingly, the Pt particles on Pt–R/Beta-H have higher dispersion than the Pt particles on conventional Beta zeolite (Pt–R/Beta). XPS spectra also reveal that Pt–R/Beta-H has higher Pt 0 /Pt 2+ ratio than Pt–R/Beta. Very importantly, Pt–R/Beta-H exhibits much higher catalytic activities and longer catalyst life as well as lower apparent activation energy in the catalytic combustion of toluene than Pt–R/Beta. The extraordinary performance in the catalytic combustion of toluene over Pt–R/Beta-H catalyst is of great importance for obtaining clean environment and enhancing human health.

Enhanced performance in catalytic combustion of toluene over mesoporous Beta zeolite-supported platinum catalyst

The removal of volatile organic compounds is an important aspect of sustainability and environmental protection. Catalytic oxidation is one of the most efficient routes to achieve this. The K+ form of an aluminium-rich Beta zeolite-supported Pt nanoparticle (2.2 nm) [Pt/KBeta-seed-directed synthesis (SDS)] catalyst is very active for the low-temperature catalytic removal of toluene and results in full conversion at a much lower temperature than a conventional KBeta-supported Pt nanoparticle (Pt/KBeta-TEA) catalyst. The higher activity of the Pt/KBeta-SDS catalyst compared with the Pt/KBeta-TEA catalyst is related to the advantages of the higher K+ content and fewer terminal silanol defects in the KBeta-SDS catalyst than in the KBeta-TEA catalyst. The higher K+ content is helpful for the formation of more Pt0 species, and both the higher K+ content and the lower number of terminal silanol defects are favourable for the adsorption of toluene, as evidenced by XPS and the toluene-TPD profiles. More importantly, the Pt/KBeta-SDS catalyst shows very stable activities in the presence of H2O and CO2 in the feed gases. The combination of this extraordinary activity and excellent stability in the catalytic removal of toluene over the Pt/KBeta-SDS catalyst are important for future environment protection.

Chunyu Chen

Papers

Importance of platinum particle size for complete oxidation of toluene over Pt/ZSM-5 catalysts

Mesoporous ZSM-5 Zeolite-Supported Ru Nanoparticles as Highly Efficient Catalysts for Upgrading Phenolic Biomolecules

Enhanced performance in catalytic combustion of toluene over mesoporous Beta zeolite-supported platinum catalyst

Aluminium-rich Beta zeolite-supported platinum nanoparticles for the low-temperature catalytic removal of toluene

Atom-economical synthesis of a high silica CHA zeolite using a solvent-free route