Nickel-aluminosilicate catalysts for ethylene oligomerization: recent scientific progress

Significant scientific effort has been made during the last decades to develop heterogeneous catalysts and processes for ethylene oligomerization. Among the reported catalysts, Ni-aluminosilicates are regarded as the most promising candidates. This paper reviews the recent advancements in ethylene conversion catalyzed by Ni-aluminosilicates. The main fundamental and practical aspects on this topic, including types of catalysts depending on the support, active nickel sites, oligomerization mechanism and kinetics and catalyst deactivation, are examined. The multi-reaction catalytic processes in which oligomerization is the key step have been also discussed.