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Exploring the landscape of methanol-to-hydrocarbons conversion catalysts

Nature Catalysis volume 9, pages 348–362 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MTH) processes offer the potential for transitioning the production of base chemicals and liquid fuels to alternative fossil and renewable resources. The commercialization of ZSM-5 (MFI) and SAPO-34 (CHA) catalysts, coupled with the complexity of the reaction mechanism, has spurred extensive research to increase the selectivity for desired hydrocarbons and also mitigate coke-induced deactivation. Here we present a quantitative performance assessment of the zeolites and zeotypes studied as MTH catalysts over the past three decades. We leverage a comprehensive dataset to evaluate selectivity–stability profiles and examine how structural descriptors and operating conditions govern performance, with additional insights imparted through machine-learning-based analytics. These structure–conditions–performance relationships are discussed in the context of current mechanistic understanding, providing a perspective on MTH catalysis. The analysis shows that product selectivity and coking sensitivity are strongly determined by catalyst structure, particularly the micropore topology, but are also influenced by conditions such as temperature and the addition of co-feeds, which substantially influence competing pathways.

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Fig. 1: An overview of MTH technologies.
Fig. 2: Mechanism of MTH conversion, including coke formation.
Fig. 3: Selectivities and cumulative turnover capacities of various catalysts.
Fig. 4: Selectivities and cumulative turnover capacities of MFI catalysts.
Fig. 5: Selectivities and cumulative turnover capacities of CHA catalysts.
Fig. 6: Selectivities versus cumulative turnover capacities for various MTH catalysts.
Fig. 7: Main parameters, descriptors and performance metrics of MTH catalysts.
Fig. 8: Impact of structural and reaction descriptors on MTH performance metrics.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are provided in Supplementary Information. Data are also available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Paul Scherrer Institut and ETH Zurich.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland

    Vladimir Paunović & Jeroen A. van Bokhoven

  2. Department of Process Systems Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany

    Georg Liesche & Kai Sundmacher

  3. Department of Process Systems Engineering, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Magdeburg, Germany

    Georg Liesche & Kai Sundmacher

  4. Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany

    Georg Liesche

  5. Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Jeroen A. van Bokhoven

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  2. Georg Liesche
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Contributions

V.P. conceived and designed the study, analysed the data, contributed analysis tools and wrote the paper. G.L. and K.S. contributed to analysis tools. J.A.v.B. contributed to data analysis and paper writing.

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Correspondence to Vladimir Paunović or Jeroen A. van Bokhoven.

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Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Table of contents. Supplementary Table 1: structural information for different frameworks. Supplementary Table 2: catalysts, their properties, operating regime, and performance metrics in the MTH conversion. Supplementary Fig. 1: correlation matrix based on Spearman’s correlation coefficients (ρ) for different structural and reaction descriptors described in Fig. 7 of the main textt. Supplementary references.

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Paunović, V., Liesche, G., Sundmacher, K. et al. Exploring the landscape of methanol-to-hydrocarbons conversion catalysts. Nat Catal 9, 348–362 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-026-01506-x

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