Selective Hydrogen Oxidation in the Presence of C3 Hydrocarbons Using Perovskite Oxygen Reservoirs

Perovskite‐type oxides, ABO₃, can be successfully applied as solid “oxygen reservoirs” in redox reactions such as selective hydrogen combustion. This reaction is part of a novel process for propane oxidative dehydrogenation, wherein the lattice oxygen of the perovskite is used to combust hydrogen selectively from the dehydrogenation mixture at 550 °C. This gives three key advantages: it shifts the dehydrogenation equilibrium to the side of the desired products, heat is generated, thus aiding the endothermic dehydrogenation, and it simplifies product separation (H₂O vs H₂). Furthermore, the process is safer since it uses the catalysts’ lattice oxygen instead of gaseous O₂. We screened fourteen perovskites for activity, selectivity and stability in selective hydrogen combustion. The catalytic properties depend strongly on the composition. Changing the B atom in a series of LaBO₃ perovskites shows that Mn and Co give a higher selectivity than Fe and Cr. Replacing some of the La atoms with Sr or Ca also affects the catalytic properties. Doping with Sr increases the selectivity of the LaFeO₃ perovskite, but yields a catalyst with low selectivity in the case of LaCrO₃. Conversely, doping LaCrO₃ with Ca increases the selectivity. The best results are achieved with Sr‐doped LaMnO₃, with selectivities of up to 93 % and activities of around 150 μmol O m^?2. This catalyst, La_0.9Sr_0.1MnO₃, shows excellent stability, even after 125 redox cycles at 550 °C (70 h on stream). Notably, the activity per unit surface area of the perovskite catalysts is higher than that of doped cerias, the current benchmark of solid oxygen reservoirs.