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Heterogenous catalysis

Reality check on propane dehydrogenation

Nature Catalysis volume 9, pages 237–239 (2026)Cite this article

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Industrial propane dehydrogenation typically requires hazardous or costly catalysts based on Pt or Cr. Now, cobalt silicalite-1 zeolites emerge as potential substitutes in terms of stability on-stream and in regeneration, as well as intrinsic high activity.

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Fig. 1: Catalytic and structural comparison of cobalt silicalite catalysts.

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Acknowledgements

G.P. thanks Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) grant 1222525N. The Moonshot project D2M2 (HBC.2022.0538) of VLAIO (Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) has been the main funding for PDH research in our lab. We thank I. A. Khan, R. Zou and J. Mendoza Mesa for fruitful (O)PDH discussions.

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  1. Center for Sustainable Catalysis and Engineering (CSCE), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Giovanni Pampararo & Michiel Dusselier

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  1. Giovanni Pampararo
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  2. Michiel Dusselier
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Correspondence to Michiel Dusselier.

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Pampararo, G., Dusselier, M. Reality check on propane dehydrogenation. Nat Catal 9, 237–239 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-026-01510-1

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