Sodium tungstate-promoted CaMnO3 as an effective, phase-transition redox catalyst for redox oxidative cracking of cyclohexane

Abstract

Oxidative cracking, which combines catalytic oxidation and cracking reactions, represents a promising approach to reduce the energy and carbon intensities for light olefin production from naphtha. The need to co-feed gaseous oxygen with hydrocarbons, however, leads to significant COx formation and safety concerns. The cost and energy consumption associated with air separation also affects its economic attractiveness. In this study, we investigated a redox oxidative cracking (ROC) scheme and evaluated perovskites (La0.8Sr0.2FeO3 and CaMnO3) and Na2WO4-promoted perovskite (La0.8Sr0.2FeO3@Na2WO4 and CaMnO3@Na2WO4) as the redox catalysts for ROC. CaMnO3@Na2WO4 redox catalyst shows high activity, selectivity, and stability for light olefin production from cyclohexane. Operated under a redox oxidative cracking (ROC) scheme, CaMnO3@Na2WO4 enhances the catalytic cracking of cyclohexane, while showing high selectivity towards hydrogen combustion with its built-in, active lattice oxygen. Over three-fold increase in olefin yield compared to thermal cracking and 35% yield increase compared to conventional O2-cofeed oxidative cracking were achieved. Low energy ion scattering (LEIS), X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy (XPS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated a core-shell structure, where a molten Na2WO4 layer covers the CaMnO3 core. Na2WO4 modifies the oxygen donation behavior of CaMnO3 and provides a catalytically active surface for cyclohexane activation. In-situ XRD revealed that CaMnO3@Na2WO4 exhibited excellent structural stability and regenerability. The transformation of Mn4+ ↔ Mn3+ ↔ Mn2+ in CaMnO3, facilitated by reversible phase transition to (Ca/Mn)O solid solution, is responsible for the lattice oxygen donation and uptake during redox cycles. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements further confirmed that the oxygen species were transported through the molten Na2WO4 layer to participate in ROC. These findings offer mechanistic insights to design effective redox catalysts for hydrocarbon valorization using the chemical looping strategy.