Catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of 1-butene to 1,3-butadiene using CO2

•Temperature Programmed Surface Reaction (TPSR) shows that oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) takes place.•1-butene can be efficiently converted to 1,3-butadiene (BD) using CO2 as a soft oxidant.•The main byproducts, tr/cis-2-butenes, can be converted to BD with similar yield.•A reaction mechanism is proposed based on the experiment results.

1,3-Butadiene (BD) is an important raw material in petrochemical industry and its consumption is expected to increase dramatically. Catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of 1-butene is an alternative route to produce BD. In this study, a soft oxidant, CO2 was used instead of O2. Fe2O3 was selected from a preliminary screening using Temperature Programmed Surface Reaction (TPSR). The catalytic performance was greatly improved by supporting Fe2O3 on Al2O3. This contribution clearly shows that both Fe2O3 and CO2 are involved in the reaction. The main byproducts, trans/cis-2-butenes, can also be converted to BD with similar BD yield. A preliminary reaction mechanism is proposed.