Short communicationMicrostructured CeO2-NiO-Al2O3/Ni-foam catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene

•CeO2-NiO-Al2O3/Ni-foam is obtained by chemically etching Ni-foam and modifying with CeO2.•CeO2-NiO-Al2O3 nanocomposite catalyst is uniformly embedded onto the Ni-foam struts.•Such catalyst is highly active and selective with promising stability for the ODE process.•Foam-structuring endows catalyst with high heat/mass transfer and high permeability.•Fascinating C2H4 productivity is obtainable over the 7CeO2-NiO-Al2O3/Ni-foam catalyst.

Ni-foam-structured CeO2-NiO-Al2O3 catalysts to be used for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene (ODE) have been developed, via chemically etching a Ni-foam followed by CeO2 modification. The CeO2-NiO-Al2O3/Ni-foam catalysts are highly active and selective with promising stability. With the increase in CeO2 loading up to 10 wt%, ethane conversion is increased monotonously while ethylene selectivity shows volcano-shaped evolution and reaches its maxima at 7 wt% CeO2 loading. A high ethylene productivity of 425 gEthylene kgcat− 1 h− 1 is achieved for a feed gas of C2H6/O2/N2 = 1/1/8 at 450 °C and a gas hourly space velocity of 18,000 cm3 g− 1 h− 1. Promotion effect of CeO2 additive is also discussed.

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