(127a) Tale of an Ethane Oxidative Dehydrogenation Catalyst with Long and Stable Life Under Harsh Conditions

Southern Research, in partnership with DOE/NETL has developed a novel, low-cost mixed oxide catalyst for moderate temperature ethylene production process using CO₂ and ethane. The proprietary catalyst exploits CO₂ as a ‘soft’ oxidant to dehydrogenate ethane to ethylene at high selectivity (oxidative dehydrogenation). Long term stability of catalyst has been studied using simulated coal-fired flue gas (as CO₂ source). This testing was conducted for up to 500 hrs which constituted 50+ cycles of reaction followed by regeneration. The catalyst showed remarkable activity, selectivity, stability and regenerability at harsh conditions in presence of some notable coal fired flue gas impurities. Techno-economic (TEA) study shows the cost of ethylene production can be competitive with partial co-product credit. On the other hand, life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals potential for 60-70% reduction in CO₂ emission for an integrated power-ethylene plant compared to the state-of-the-art alternatives. The catalyst synthesis has been scaled up to advance the technology from laboratory scale to field scale demonstration. The presentation will highlight the results from the long term testing study, ongoing efforts to scale up process and the updated TEA/LCA results.