Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene by carbon dioxide over Cr/TS-1 catalysts

A series of chromium catalysts supported on titanosilicate-1 (TS-1) molecular sieves with different nSi/nTi ratios prepared by impregnation method have been tested for the dehydrogenation of ethane with carbon dioxide between 450 and 650 °C. The results showed that Cr/TS-1 (nSi/nTi = 30) catalyst effectively dehydrogenated ethane to ethylene in the presence of carbon dioxide at 650 °C, giving 47.4% ethylene yield with a selectivity of 90.0%. The catalytic activity, observed at temperatures as low as 450 °C can be well explained on the basis of the existence of reducible chromium species. Moreover, the catalytic stability and regeneration performance of the Cr/TS-1 (nSi/nTi = 30) catalyst were also investigated.