Solar-Driven Thermocatalytic Ethylene Oligomerization

We have designed a solar-thermal flow-through reactor with a multi-layered selective solar absorber for thermocatalytic oligomerization of ethylene to generate multicarbon (C4-C6 hydrocarbons) products. The selective solar absorber has high absorptivity at visible solar wavelengths and high reflectivity at infrared thermal radiation wavelengths. When exposed to sunlight (3-sun intensity), the solar absorber reaches a temperature of 100 °C sufficient to drive an industrially relevant ethylene oligomerization reaction to convert ethylene into C4-C6 hydrocarbon solar fuels. Moreover, we demonstrate that this process works using a diluted ethylene stream gas directly produced by a CO₂ electrolysis cell that produces ethylene.<br/><br/>Thermocatalytic routes are widely used for the commercial production of fuel and chemicals due to high conversion rates, good selectivity, and scalability. However, today’s thermocatalytic technologies are driven by the thermal heat from burning fossil fuels and thus generate greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change. To become low- and zero-carbon emission technologies, these processes need to operate on renewable energy. One way to accomplish this goal is to convert solar energy into heat required to run thermocatalytic reactions. Overall, our work presents a framework to convert CO₂, water, and sunlight into sustainable fuels.