SILICA-ALUMINA MIXED OXIDES AS SUPPORTS FOR NiO AND ITS PERFORMANCE TO PRODUCE ETHYLENE FROM ETHANE.

BRUSSINO, P.; BORTOLOZZI, J.P.; MEHRING, ERIKA LISET; ULLA, M.A.

Puerto Vallarta

Congreso; XXVII Congreso Iberoamericano de Catálisis (CICat 2020); 2020

Federación Iberoamericana de Sociedades de Catálisis (FISOCat)

Nowadays, ethylene production by cracking generates a negative environmental impact. Therefore, a catalytic alternative route is being studied. In this work nickel based catalysts (40 wt.% Ni) supported on silica-alumina mixed oxides were synthesized and then tested in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. The influence of the silica content of these supports on the resulting nickel species and its catalytic performance was investigated. With higher SiO2 contents, the support surface area was higher. Consequently, nickel species were more exposed, thus increasing ethane conversion. A support with the same amount of silica but higher pore volume was also investigated. In this case, it was determined that a part of the nickel particles was accumulated into the pores, resulting in Ni species with similar properties to those of unsupported NiO. Because of that, ethylene selectivity was lower. Nevertheless, all selectivity values were high (80-90% at 400 °C). The results indicated that it was possible to increase the ethane conversion maintaining elevated selectivity values by increasing the amount of silica in the supports.