{"id":126811,"date":"2020-12-04T20:41:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/methanethiol-a-potential-new-feedstock-in-c1-chemistry\/"},"modified":"2020-12-04T20:41:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:41:18","slug":"methanethiol-a-potential-new-feedstock-in-c1-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/methanethiol-a-potential-new-feedstock-in-c1-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"#Methanethiol, a potential new feedstock in C1 chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Methanethiol, a potential new feedstock in C1 chemistry<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Methanethiol,
\n Miao Yu. Credit: Eindhoven University of Technology<\/a>
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Catalytic conversion of molecules with one carbon atom such as methane, carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>), methanol (CH3<\/sub>OH) and others into higher-value chemicals is of major importance for a viable and sustainable chemical industry. Ph.D. candidate Miao Yu, of the TU\/e Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, explored the synthesis of an alternative building block, methanethiol (CH3<\/sub>SH)\u2014the sulfur analog of CH3<\/sub>OH\u2014from cheap and abundant feedstock as well as the further conversion of CH3<\/sub>SH into olefins, which are widely used for making plastics. The development of catalysts for both chemical reaction steps lays the foundation for novel industrial chemical processes. Yu will defend his Ph.D. thesis on 2 December 2020.<\/p>\n


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In addition to its capacity to be converted into olefins, CH3<\/sub>SH is used as an important raw material for sulfur-containing products in the food industry. Currently, it is produced by thiolation of CH3<\/sub>OH, a process that makes it too expensive for large-scale production. Direct synthesis of CH3<\/sub>SH from simple chemicals such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide was already attempted 30 years ago. This led to the development of a class of alkali-promoted molybdenum sulfide (K\/MoS2) catalysts which, despite their promise, has not yet made the direct synthesis process competitive enough compared to the conventional methanol route.<\/p>\n

For the next step, Yu explored the reaction mechanism of CH3<\/sub>SH synthesis in detail by advanced spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. These meticulous studies yielded a surprising outcome: instead of potassium (K), cesium (Cs) shows a much better performance in promoting the activity of the MoS2<\/sub> catalysts. Moreover, it turned out that the MoS2<\/sub> component is not needed at all\u2014alkali sulfides alone can catalyze CH3<\/sub>SH synthesis. These insights make it possible to develop new catalysts that are much more cost effective, bringing us one step closer to large-scale CH3<\/sub>SH synthesis.<\/p>\n

Now that there are prospects for CH3<\/sub>SH to become a cheap commodity chemical, it is worthwhile to explore the conversion of this simple molecule to ethylene, which is the main building block for polyethylene. To this end, it is necessary to make carbon-carbon bonds. Given the analogy between CH3<\/sub>OH and CH3<\/sub>SH, Yu attempted to mimic the already industrialized methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process. A major discovery was that particular small-pore zeolites have the capacity to catalyze the conversion of CH3<\/sub>SH to ethylene with high selectivity in a novel chemical process called the “methanethiol-to-olefins (MtTO) reaction.”<\/p>\n

With his research, Yu shows the potential of CH3<\/sub>SH to become a novel C1 feedstock for the chemical industry. Indirectly, this can contribute to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, because it is possible to use CO2<\/sub> can be used as a C1 feedstock as well. A next challenge is the direct synthesis of methanethiol from CO2<\/sub> to intensify the overall process.<\/p>\n\n

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Double catalyst for the direct conversion of synthesis gas to lower olefins\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n Provided by
\n Eindhoven University of Technology
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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Methanethiol, a potential new feedstock in C1 chemistry (2020, December 4)
\n retrieved 4 December 2020
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2020-12-methanethiol-potential-feedstock-c1-chemistry.html<\/p>\n

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