Selective oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane over MoO3/V2O5–Al2O3 catalysts: Heteropolymolybdate as a precursor for MoO3

Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene was investigated over a series of MoO3 added V2O5–Al2O3 catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, Laser-Raman and FT-IR spectroscopies and TPR technique. Catalytic tests were carried out in a fixed bed stainless steel reactor in the temperature range from 450 to 600 °C. Results revealed that the loading of molybdophosphoric acid (MPA) and the method of preparation had a clear influence on the catalytic performance. Among all, 10 wt.% MPA/V2O5–Al2O3 solid was found to possess superior activity and selectivity (X-C2H6 ~ 35% and S-C2H4 ~ 65%). Formation of Mo–V mixed oxide phases on Al2O3 appeared to be responsible for this improved performance. This best catalyst also exhibited good long-term stability over a period of ca. 36 h.

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► Ethane oxidative dehydrogenation studies on decomposed molybdophosphoric acid supported on 17.5% V2O5–Al2O3
► High ethylene selectivity (64.1%) even at 600 °C
► Long term stability of the catalysts up to 36 h
► No need of regeneration step