Ni and Ni-Ce/Al2O3 onto AISI 314 foams as structured catalysts applied to the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane

J. P. BORTOLOZZI; T. WEISS; L. B. GUTIERREZ; M. A. ULLA

LYON

Congreso; XI EUROPACAT; 2013

UNIVERSITY OF LYON

Nowadays ethylene is mainly produced by steam cracking of certain petroleum fractions such as naphtha or ethane. This process involves severe operating conditions with the consequently large energy consumption. Be-sides, side reactions are favored decreasing the global yields. Several alternative production routes are under intense research because ethylene is a key intermediate in the manufacture of valuable products, such as polyethylene, pol-yvinyl chloride (PVC) and styrene, among others. Catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane is an attractive route for the ethylene production. This process employs relatively low temperatures and diminishes the coke formation. On the other hand, a better global energy balance could be achieved due to the exothermic nature of reactions [1]. A catalytic formulation in powder form is difficult to apply; therefore it is necessary to study the deposition of the catalytic powder onto structured substrates. The metallic foams are found among the most promising substrates, since they exhibit attractive properties such as low density, high porosity, high energy and mass transfer coeffi-cients, which conduce to minimize hot spots generation and to reduce diffusional limitations. In this work, Ni and Ni-Ce/Al2O3 catalysts in powder and structured forms were studied, in order to perform a comparative analysis of both systems. They were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Laser Raman Spec-troscopy (LRS), Temperature Programmed Reduction (TPR) and Chemical Microanalysis (EDX). The comparative analysis of their catalytic performances for the ethane oxidative dehydrogenation was carried out.