Preparing methane‐resistant Ru catalysts via moderate metal‐support interactions for polyethylene hydrogenolysis

Polyethylene is the most abundant component of plastic waste. One dominant polyethylene recycling route is metal‐catalyzed hydrogenolysis, since it operates at relatively low temperatures and favors formation of high‐value liquid alkanes. Ru catalysts exhibit higher hydrogenolysis activity compared to Pt, Pd, Rh, and Ni. Nevertheless, this also brings a high tendency for terminal C–C scission to form low‐value methane. Consequently, highly‐selective Ru catalysts often require complex syntheses (e.g., site isolation, composite supports). Here, we report that methane‐resistant Ru catalysts can be realized through simple, industrially‐compatible impregnation via a moderate metal‐support interaction. The choice of ZrO 2 strikes a balance: it promotes H 2 spillover to create an H 2 ‐rich surface beneficial for hydrocarbon fragment hydrogenation while avoiding excessive retention of the fragments that would favor undesirable overcracking. The resulting nano‐sized Ru/ZrO 2 achieves 88.4% selectivity to liquids at full conversion—comparable to state‐of‐the‐art systems—while being prepared by industrially‐compatible impregnation.