Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 43-62.doi: 10.1007/s40242-026-5294-y

• Review Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Catalyst Development and Design in Propane Dehydrogenation

LI Shiying1, LI Qi1,2, YANG Huanhuan3, WANG Sen1, DONG Mei1, WANG Jianguo2, FAN Weibin1   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, P. R. China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China;
    3. Henan Institute of Advanced Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450003, P. R. China
  • Received:2025-12-19 Online:2026-02-01 Published:2026-01-28
  • Contact: WANG Sen,E-mail:wangsen@sxicc.ac.cn;DONG Mei,E-mail:mdong@sxicc.ac.cn;FAN Weibin,E-mail:fanwb@sxicc.ac.cn E-mail:wangsen@sxicc.ac.cn;mdong@sxicc.ac.cn;fanwb@sxicc.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2023YFB4103700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21991090, 21991092, 22272195, U1910203, U22A20431), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province of China (Nos. 202303021212378, 202203021224009, 202303021222277), the Innovation Foundation of Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. SCJC-DT-2023-06), the Project of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (No. 2021172), the Youth Talent Development Program of SKLCC (No. 2025BWZ005), and the Technical Support Talent Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. YJSZC2023001).

Abstract: Light-alkane direct dehydrogenation reaction, which has received wide attention in recent years, is an important industrial technology for the petrochemical fields. There are great progresses and developments on the Pt- and/or non-noble metal-based heterogeneous catalysts for selectively activating the C—H bond with the purpose of high alkene productivity. However, the coke formation and sintering of the metal would cause the catalyst deactivation. Thus, it is still a challenge to achieve catalysts with high catalytic performance and stability. This review describes recent advances in the strategies for promoting the metal dispersion and tuning the metal electron structures: (1) introduction of promoters; (2) synthesizing the highly active single-atom sites; (3) alteration of the support properties and encapsulation of subnanometer-sized clusters into the microporous zeolites. In addition, the elimination of coke on the support can be realized by decreasing the acid sites and co-feeding other gas flows. The alternative catalysts, such as non-noble metals and metal oxides, are also summarized. The active sites, reaction pathways and deactivation mechanism over various catalysts are also discussed, which is expected to help the efficient catalyst design for high selectivity to propene products. The challenges and perspectives of catalysts on light-alkane dehydrogenation are proposed for further development.

Key words: Light-alkane direct dehydrogenation, Pt-based catalyst, Non-noble metal-based catalyst, Coke deposition