Selective Metathesis of α-Olefins from Bio-Sourced Fischer–Tropsch Feeds

The search for a low-cost process for the valorization of linear α-olefins combining high productivity and high selectivity is a longstanding goal for chemists. Herein, we report a soluble ruthenium olefin metathesis catalyst that performs the conversion of linear α-olefins to longer internal linear olefins with high selectivity (>99%) under neat conditions at low loadings (50 ppm) and without the need of expensive additives. This robust catalytic process allowed us to efficiently and selectively re-equilibrate the naphtha fraction (C 5 –C 8 ) of a Fischer–Tropsch feed derived from non-petroleum resources to a higher-value product range (C 9 –C 14 ), useful as detergent and plasticizer precursors.