In Saudi Arabia, researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology developed a catalyst using titanium and tungsten compounds that converts propane gas into heavier hydrocarbons and speeds up a chemical reaction that can be used to produce liquid fuels. Ethane and butane were the main products from the reaction and the catalyst lasted an average of 10,000 cycle before losing activity which is the longest ever reported for a propane metathesis reaction. Manoja Samantaray from the KAUST Catalysis Center told Phys.org, “Our aim is to convert lower molecular weight alkanes to valuable diesel-range alkanes. We believe that in the near future, industry can adopt our approach for producing diesel-range alkanes and more generally of catalysis by design.”
