The light olefins ethylene,propylene, and butylene are key building blocks for chemical industry, and are starting materials for making plastics,synthetic fibers, and coatings. They are normally made from petroleum. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, and Chinese scientists have now introduced a fresh process that may design it more attractive to design olefins from alternative sources of carbon,such as biomass, natural gas, and coal. The key to their success is a bifunctional catalyst that converts synthesis gas,a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, to lower olefins with astonishingly high selectivity.
Source: phys.org