Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene over NiO loaded on high surface area MgO

The oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane over NiO-loaded MgO with high surface area was carried out using a fixed-bed flow reactor at 600 °C under atmospheric pressure.

At 600 °C, the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (C₂H₆/O₂ = 1) without dilution with an inert gas resulted in C₂H₆ conversion of 68.8% and a high C₂H₄ selectivity of 52.8%, which corresponds to a C₂H₄ yield of 36.3%. In addition, the catalytic activity did not decrease for at least 10 h. X-ray photoelectron spectra of the catalysts after the reaction exhibited that the initial valence state of Ni²⁺ (NiO) was maintained during the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. However, when NiO-loaded MgO was reduced with H₂ prior to the reaction, C₂H₄ selectivity decreased to nearly zero and high CO and H₂ selectivities were observed with the C₂H₆ conversion of 50 %, indicating that partial oxidation of C₂H₆ proceeded. Therefore, it seems important to keep Ni species as an oxide phase on the support, and for this purpose, use of the high surface area of MgO is essential.