Kinetic Study of Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane over MoVTeNb Mixed-Oxide Catalyst

A MoVTeNb multimetallic mixed oxide was studied for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane, a promising alternative for catalytic ethylene production. Lab-scale steady-state experimental reaction data were obtained according to a 3^k experimental design to investigate the simultaneous effect of temperature (400–480 °C) and space–time [23–70 g_cat h (mol of ethane)⁻¹]. A fixed-bed reactor at atmospheric pressure was employed, feeding a mixture of ethane, oxygen, and nitrogen. Ethane conversion varied from 17 to 85%, whereas selectivity for ethylene and CO_<i>x</i> varied from 94 to 76% and from 4.0 to 24%, respectively. These types of analyses are useful for determining the optimum reaction conditions to enhance the catalytic performance of the mixed oxides presented herein