Lower alkanes dehydrogenation: Strategies and reaction routes to corresponding alkenes

• Current industrial alkane dehydrogenation catalysts are platinum and chromium based.
• Industrial alkane dehydrogenations are non-oxidative highly endothermic processes.
• Auto-thermal and oxidative alkane dehydrogenation strategies can offset a significant fraction of the required energy input.
• The autothermal and oxidative alkane dehydrogenation strategies are currently immature technologies.
• Catalyst improvement endeavors can benefit from insights on alkane C–H bond activation mechanisms.

Advances in fossil fuel exploration have continued to drive availability of lower alkane feedstocks for the chemical industry. Lower alkanes are potential precursors to the plethora of basic organic chemicals. However, conversion of lower alkanes to valuable chemicals often involves indirect or multi-step reaction routes. Developing direct routes to obtain key organic chemicals from lower alkanes would benefit industry. Dehydrogenation of C2 and C3 alkanes are particularly of interest as alternatives to steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking for obtaining C2 and C3 alkenes. This review highlights developments in non-oxidative, autothermal and oxidative dehydrogenation of C2 and C3 alkanes. We examine reaction routes to dehydrogenation of lower alkenes, and analyze the C–H activation mechanism of commercial catalysts in order to gain insight into rational design of improved catalysts for C2 and C3 alkane dehydrogenation at lower temperatures.

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