Recent Advances in the Understanding of Boron-Containing Catalysts for the Selective Oxidation of Alkanes to Olefins
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Recent Advances in the Understanding of Boron‑Containing Catalysts for the Selective Oxidation of Alkanes to Olefins William P. McDermott1 · Melissa C. Cendejas1 · Ive Hermans1,2 Accepted: 25 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The production of ethylene and propylene through aerobic alkane oxidation without significant coproduction of CO and CO2 (COx) presents a challenge to academic and industrial researchers alike. Recently, boron-containing materials such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have been identified as active and selective catalysts for the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of propane to propylene with minimal COx selectivity. Additionally, high olefin selectivity is also obtained in the oxidation of other alkanes and other materials such as metal borides and supported B/SiO2 have been successfully applied to this transformation. Recent advances in the understanding of these catalysts in the oxidation of light alkanes are presented here providing a framework for further study of this exciting field. Keywords Selective oxidation · Oxidative dehydrogenation · Hexagonal boron nitride · Radical mechanisms
1 Introduction Ethylene and propylene are considered to be some of the most important chemical building blocks as they form the foundation of many polymers, oxygenates, and other bulk chemical intermediates. Traditionally, these light olefins are produced by cracking naphtha. In more recent years, natural gas-derived ethane has become a cheap and abundant resource for the production of feedstock chemicals and many crackers have been retrofitted or newly constructed for the cracking of ethane. As ethane cracking only produces sparing amounts of olefins heavier than ethylene [1], a gap between the supply of propylene from crackers and the demand for propylene has emerged [2]. To fill this gap, socalled on-purpose propylene production processes have been implemented such as propane dehydrogenation (PDH) which benefits from high propylene selectivity from catalysts that are typically platinum- or chromium-based [3]. However, these processes also have significant disadvantages. PDH is highly endothermic and equilibrium-limited owing to * Ive Hermans [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry, University of WisconsinMadison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
2
the coproduction of H2, thus high reaction temperatures are required to drive conversion. Additionally, PDH catalysts deactivate rapidly due to the deposition of carbon (coke) on the surface and capital-intensive reactor designs allowing for semi-continuous catalyst regeneration have been engineered to work around this caveat. The oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) has been studied as an alternative to PDH and is exothermic, not equilibrium-limited, and does not require regeneration as coke deposition is inhibited by the presence of O 2 within the feed [4].
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