Effect of Promoters on Manganese-Containing Mixed Metal Oxides for Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane via a Cyclic Redox Scheme

Abstract

Ethylene is an important building block in the chemical industry; state of the art ethylene production (steam cracking) has multiple drawbacks, including high energy consumption, coke formation, and significant CO2 and NOx emissions. We propose a chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation (CL-ODH) process to convert ethane into ethylene in a two-step, cyclic redox scheme. In this process, lattice oxygen in a metal oxide based redox catalyst is used to combust the hydrogen formed in ethane dehydrogenation, thereby enhancing ethylene formation while retarding coke formation. The oxygen-deprived redox catalyst is subsequently regenerated with air, releasing heat to balance the overall heat requirement. CL-ODH can realize a reduction of over 80% in primary energy consumption and pollutant emissions. The key to this process is an efficient redox catalyst with high selectivity and facile oxygen transport. Previously we determined that oxides with an Mg6MnO8 structure allow high lattice oxygen mobility and satis...