Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane over NiO-loaded High Surface Area ZrO2 Catalysts

The oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODHE) over POn/NiO/ZrO2 (High Surface area Zirconia HSZ) catalyst was carried out with a fix-bed flow reactor at 450 degrees C under atmospheric pressure The ODHE without dilution of reactants with inert gas resulted in ethane conversion of 32 1%, with a high ethene selectivily of 64 2% and an ethene yield of 20 6% In addition, the catalytic activity did not decrease for at least 12 h In XPS analysis Ni species of NiO/HSZ catalyst after the reaction exhibited partly reduced metallic NI In contrast in POn/NiO/HSZ Ni species exhibited mostly the NiO form after the reaction It was found to be important for high ethane conversion and ethene selectivity the Ni species not to be reduced to metallic NI during the ODHE mac lion The addition of a small amount of POn to NiO/HSZ catalyst significantly contributed to the resistance to the facile reduction of NiO