Selective oxidative dehydrogenation of propane over V-Mg-O catalysts

Abstract

Vanadium-magnesium oxides were found to be active and selective catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene. A selectivity of up to 65% was obtained at 10% conversion, but decreased with increasing conversion. No oxygenates were detected. The reaction rate was 0.6 +/- 0.15 order in propane and zeroth order in oxygen. For comparison, the rate for butane oxidative dehydrogenation was 0.85 +/- 0.15 in butane and zeroth order in oxygen. Both reactions were believed to proceed primarily with the breaking of a methylene C-H bond to form an adsorbed alkyl radical species.