The catalytic oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of light alkanes has great potential to be used for production of alkenes instead of classically used steam cracking of naphtha. We report for the first time a comparison of molybdenum oxide species supported on three different industrially relevant mesoporous supports—Al2O3, SiO2 and TiO2 in ODH of n-butane. All samples were prepared by wet impregnation and characterized by ICP-EOS for determination of molybdenum content, XRD and N2-adsorption for study of morphology and texture, H2-TPR and DR UV–vis spectroscopy for determination of molybdenum complex speciation and by NH3-TPD for study of acidity. All prepared materials were tested in n-butane ODH reaction at 540 °C and iso-conversion conditions. The molybdenum oxide supported on alumina exhibited the extraordinary high productivity (1.16 kgprod kgcat−1 h−1) in ODH of n-butane which is one of the five highest C4-deh productivity values which were published for ODH of n-butane in open literature. Moreover, this catalyst exhibit high selectivity to 1,3-butadine in comparison with other catalysts tested in n-butane ODH.
