Daniel J. Martenak

Studies on Dehydrogenation of Ethane in the Presence of CO2 over Octahedral Molecular Sieve (OMS‐2) Catalysts

Carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, can be used as a source of carbon. Conversion of CO2 into organic compounds has been studied intensively. For example, ethane catalytic dehydrogenation [Equation (1)] offers an attractive route for converting CO2. Firstly, the coke-formation problem, particularly troublesome in the steam-cracking industry, can be solved by treating the coke with CO2 to generate CO over the catalyst. In addition, CO2 can act as a medium for supplying heat to the endothermic dehydrogenation reaction. 4] Furthermore, the products from Equation (1), C2H4 and CO, are precursors for olefin/CO copolymerization reactions. By varying the feedstock ratio (C2H6/CO2) in the reaction, different ratios of the products (C2H4/CO) can easily be obtained for the specific copolymerization process. Hence, the dehydrogenation of ethane in the presence of CO2 is an ideal feedstock for any process involving ethylene carbonylation with an additional benefit of recycling the greenhouse gas.