Production of Olefins via Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane in Autothermal Conditions

It was demonstrated experimentally that yields as high as 50% to olefins can be obtained from propane/oxygen mixtures into an adiabatic reactor wherein a Pt-catalyst (active in the oxidation of propane) likely served as ignitor of the gas-phase oxidative pyrolysis. By comparison of the experimental results with the simulations of a purely homogeneous reactor obtained by means of a detailed kinetic scheme, it was found that the addition of the Pt catalyst accelerated ignition and allowed the realization of the same propane conversions of a homogeneous reactor at shorter contact times.