Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane over vanadium oxide based catalysts -Effect of support and alkali promoter

The oxidative dehydrogenation of propane was investigated using vanadia typ e catalysts supported on Al2O3 TiO2, ZrO2 and MgO. The promotion of V2O5/Al 2O3 catalyst with alkali metals (Li. Na, K) was also attempted. Evaluation of temperature programmed reduction patterns showed that the reducibility o f V species is affected by the support acid-base character. The catalytic a ctivity is favored by the V reducibility of the catalyst as it was confirme d from runs conducted at 450-550 degrees C. V2O5/TiO2 catalyst exhibits the highest activity in oxydehydrogenation of propane. The support's nature al so affects the selectivity to propene; V2O5 supported on Al2O3 catalyst exh ibits the highest selectivity. Reaction studies showed that addition of alk ali metals decreases the catalytic activity in the order non-doped>Li>Na>K. Propene selectivity significantly increases in the presence of doped catal ysts. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.