Preface for a Special Issue on Sustainable Catalysis

The development of sustainable catalytic processes is essential to a chemical industry that is environmentally responsible and economically resilient. Sustainable catalysis enables the conversion of low-cost reactants into value-added products with increased reaction rate and decreased byproduct formation. By rational design of catalytic active sites or control of mass transfer in catalytic processes, the catalytic activity, selectivity, stability, and recyclability can be enhanced. By coupling otherwise inefficient reactions, catalytic performance toward valuable products can be further improved. In addition, the use of solar energy or biomass conversion provides significant opportunities to reduce energy consumption while producing useful chemicals.

We are pleased to introduce this Special Issue entitled “Sustainable Catalysis” at Chem & Bio Engineering. The issue features seven research articles and two reviews from three countries. These contributions focus on the design of efficient catalysts, control of product distribution and reaction coupling, biomass conversion, and perspectives on photoconversion and CO₂ hydrogenation.

With respect to the design of efficient catalysts, Yokoi et al. reported Aluminum (Al) distribution in microporous and hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites and its impact on catalytic cracking. Their results show that the hierarchically structured ZSM-5 exhibits enhanced performance in the production of light olefins, particularly propene, due to their distinguishable Al distribution compared to microporous ZSM-5. Xu, Liu, Wang, and Yang et al. demonstrated modulation of Al sites in MWW zeolites with enhanced catalytic performance. They found that the presence of a relatively large structure-directing agent in the synthesis of MWW zeolite significantly enriches external surface accessible active acid sites, giving superior catalytic performance in the alkylation of benzene with cyclohexene. Yang and Tsubaki et al. reported that Zeolite P1, a major conversion product of fly ash, shows impressive selectivity for methyl acetate in the carbonylation of dimethyl ether in its H-form, offering new pathways and methodologies for the production of methyl acetate. Wang and Xiao et al. reported tungsten species on Beta zeolite with abundant silanol nests for efficient olefin metathesis. Their results show that the silanol nests in dealuminated Beta zeolite are favorable for high dispersion of tungsten species, which is helpful for the adsorption and activation of olefin molecules.

For control of product distribution, Xie and Chen et al. reported adjustable products of polyethylene hydrogenolysis using bimetallic catalysts, showing that product distribution is regulated by the formation of bimetallic alloys, which is critical for polymer hydrogenolysis in the future. For reaction coupling, Nie, Song, and Guo et al. reported methane–methanol coupling and aromatization from computational simulation, giving that the process of methane–methanol coupling to light olefins is determined by the C–C coupling step, which is significant for the preparation of efficient catalysts for methane dehydroaromatization. Focusing on biomass utilization, Yu and Dai et al. reported direct conversion of the biomass-derived acetone–ethanol mixture from fermentation liquor into propene, contributing to the development of sustainable catalytic processes for biorefinery applications. Looking at utilization of solar energy, Yamashita et al. reviewed recent progress on conversion of CO₂ with single-atom catalysts. They mentioned that single-atom catalysts have higher atom utilization and better catalytic efficiency than traditional heterogeneous catalysts, which are favorable for CO₂ conversion. Xie et al. presented a review on green methanol from CO₂ hydrogenation at industrial scale, a key reaction for the production of “liquid sunshine”.

Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.