ORNL researchers played key role in zeolite catalyst research

In Tennessee, researchers led by the University of Manchester have designed a catalyst that converts biomass into fuel sources with remarkably high efficiency and offers new possibilities for manufacturing advanced renewable materials.

Neutron scattering experiments at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory played a key role in determining the chemical and behavioral dynamics of a zeolite catalyst–zeolite is a common porous material used in commercial catalysis–to provide information for maximizing its performance.

The optimized catalyst, called NbAlS-1, converts biomass-derived raw materials into light olefins–a class of petrochemicals such as ethene, propene, and butene, used to make plastics and liquid fuels. The new catalyst has an impressive yield of more than 99% but requires significantly less energy compared to its predecessors. The team’s research is published in the journal Nature Materials.