Partial Oxidation of Propane Over Mo1V0.3Te0.23Nb0.12Ox Catalyst in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

Abstract

A fluidized bed reactor, for the first time, was employed to investigate the partial oxidation of propane to acrylic acid over Mo1V0.3Te0.23Nb0.12Ox catalyst. Effects of temperature, oxygen concentration, steam concentration, space velocity, and dilution with different sizes of SiC were studied and discussed. The reaction in the fluidized bed was compared with the reaction in the classical fixed bed. The results indicated that at constant temperature propane conversion obtained in the fixed bed reactor was higher. But the fluidized bed recompensed it by higher acrylic acid selectivity leading to acrylic acid yields and formation rates considerably over the fixed bed. In the fluidized bed reactor, an enhancement in the acrylic acid selectivity was observed over fixed bed at similar conversions. It is suggested that passing a large portion of gas phase oxygen through bubbles allows operation under lower oxygen partial pressure, which favors the desired reaction path. With the heat sink feature of the diluent, the catalytic performance is more influenced by dilution in the fixed bed. However, hot spots are less likely to occur in the fluidized bed and dilution has little effect on the catalytic performance. However, propane conversion increases slightly by increasing SiC particle diameter due to better fluidization quality.