Reforming and oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane with CO2 as a soft oxidant over bimetallic catalysts

Abstract

An efficient mitigation of abundantly available CO2 is critical for sustainable environmental impact as well as for novel industrial applications. Using ethane, CO2 can be catalytically converted into a useful feedstock (synthesis gas) and a value-added monomer (ethylene) via the dry reforming pathway through the C–C bond scission and the oxidative dehydrogenation pathway through the C–H bond scission, respectively. Results from the current flow-reactor study show that the precious metal bimetallic CoPt/CeO2 catalyst undergoes the reforming reaction to produce syngas with enhanced activity and stability compared to the parent monometallic catalysts. In order to replace Pt, the activities of non-precious CoMo/CeO2 and NiMo/CeO2 are investigated and the results indicate that NiMo/CeO2 is nearly as active as CoPt/CeO2 for the reforming pathway. Furthermore, FeNi/CeO2 is identified as a promising catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation to produce ethylene. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to further understand the different pathways of the CoPt/CeO2 and FeNi/CeO2 catalysts.