CO2 oxidative dehydrogenation for hydrocarbons to olefins and styrene production

The aim of the project is to develop a new method for the dehydrogenation of alkanes to C2-C4 olefins, butane to butadiene, and ethylbenzene to styrene. Direct dehydrogenations currently used in industry have high energy consumption through the use of large amounts of excess steam, suffer from catalyst deactivation, and have limited thermodynamic equilibrium conversions because of the high temperatures required. Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) addresses these problems. ODH using oxygen has been explored for more than 20 years, but has not yet been commercialized. CO2 as a mild oxidant avoids the explosion risks of oxygen, and shows high selectivity and conversion at lower temperatures than direct dehydrogenation. Being a CO2 consumer, the proposed process is also environmental advantageous. The new CO2 ODH process will be jointly developed by Delft University and University of Groningen. Delft has expertise in catalysis engineering, reactor operation, and design; Groningen has experience in detailed support preparation and characterization.