An international research group has designed a new low-cost catalyst for the production of propylene, which is more efficient and sustainable, doesn’t require processing crude oil and uses less of the rare and expensive precious metal, platinum. Propylene, which is essential in the production of plastics, fibres, automotive components and electronic devices, is considered a key raw material in the industrial sector. Its annual production exceeded 160 million tonnes in 2023 with a forecast of over 200 million tonnes in 2030.

The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal ‘Nature’ and will have a significant impact on the industrial sector. Among the researchers was Paolo Fornasiero, professor at the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Trieste, associated with the Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds of the Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR) in Florence and member of the National Interuniversity Consortium for Materials Science and Technology (INSTM).

The research conducted by Professor Fornasiero and his research team presents a concrete solution, which improves what is already considered a valid alternative to the production of propylene from crude oil. The alternative is the process of the ‘dehydrogenation’ (PDH) of propane (a component of natural gas), splitting the bonds between carbon and hydrogen and as a result forming propylene and releasing hydrogen. Triggered at very high temperatures, dehydrogenation uses platinum catalysts, a metal that is easily susceptible to aggregation and deterioration when used repeatedly (the ‘sintering’ phenomenon). As well as producing propylene, the high temperatures used to trigger the reaction also lead to the formation of solid carbon deposits and other undesirable products that can compromise the catalyst. The process is, therefore, still inefficient for bridging the gap between the supply and demand of propylene.

Paolo Fornasiero, professor at the University of Trieste, associated with the ICCOM-CNR Institute in Florence and member of the INSTM consortium, commented: ‘With a view to an increasingly sustainable, less polluting and energy-intensive economy, our study offers the possibility of significantly reducing the use of platinum, maintaining or even improving performance, while avoiding the processes of decommissioning and regeneration of the catalyst currently required in industrial plants due to their rapid degradation.’

The catalysts obtained by the researchers, encapsulating platinum clusters in appropriate zeolites (minerals with crystalline and microporous structure), can actually maintain high activity and selectivity for over six months in industrial conditions, whereas catalysts currently used are active for only a few weeks.

As well as improving the overall efficiency of the process, researchers also expect significant economic and environmental benefits, such as reduced operating and maintenance costs of industrial catalysts, drastically reduced catalyst reactivation/replacement cycles, reduced waste and platinum use.

The international research group involves Professor Paolo Fornasiero, Professors Haibo Zhu and Xiaojun Bao and their collaborators from the University of Fuzhou (China), Professor Jean-Marie Basset at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), with contributions from the Qingyuan Innovation Laboratory (China) and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (China).

The publication comes just a few days after another publication on the same topic, by the same research group which appeared in the prestigious journal Science on 1st May 2025.