Investigations on the promoting effect of metal oxides on La-V-O catalyst in propane oxidative dehydrogenation

The addition of reducible metal oxides as promoters shows a positive effect on the catalytic behavior of lanthanum vanadate (LaVO4). A C3H6 yield incr ease of 6.5% is observed at 500 degreesC on molybdenum-promoted LaVO4, whic h can be attributed to the change of the redox properties, the blocking of the strong oxidation sites of the catalysts and to an increase of the acces sibility of the labile oxygen toward the reactant. The influence of the cat alyst preparation method and of the Mo loading as well as the additional pr omoting effect of CO2 in the gas feed was also examined.