Alkanes, light, oxidative dehydrogenation butane

The low cost of light alkanes and the fact that they are generally environmentally acceptable because of their low chemical reactivity have provided incentives to use them as feedstock for chemical production. A notable example of the successful use of alkane is the production of maleic anhydride by the selective oxidation of butane instead of benzene (7). However, except for this example, no other successful processes have been reported in recent years. A potential area for alkane utilization is the conversion to unsaturated hydrocarbons. Since the current chemical industry depends heavily on the use of unsaturated hydrocarbons as starting material, if alkanes can be dehydrogenated with high yields, they could become alternate feedstock. 

After this paper was accepted for publication in November, 1992, a number of reports have appeared that deal with the subject of oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes. The effect of the structure of vanadia on a support has been investigated for the oxidation of butane [87J and propane [88-90], The evidence supports the concepts that the bridging oxygen in V — O — V plays an important role in the oxidation reaction [87, 90], The data also show that vanadia species of different structures on these supports have different catalytic properties, and that isolated V04 units are the most selective [91]. 

One oxidation reaction that is of large industrial relevance is the oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes to the corresponding alkene (Scheme 3.20). This reaction has been reported to be promoted by r-GO as catalyst [29]. The importance of this reaction type is particularly high for the industrial preparation of propene from propane and butenes from butanes. Both reactions are carried out industrially in very large scale, because propene is the monomer of polypropene and also the starting material of propylene oxide, acrylonitrile, and other base chemicals. Butenes are mainly used for the preparation of 1,3-butadiene that is one of the major components of rubbers and elastomers. 

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