Ethane and propane hydrogenolysis on Ru catalysts

The hydrogenolysis of ethane and propane has been investigated on ruthenium catalysts and a detailed kinetic study is reported.Activation energies ranging from 70 to 170 kJ mol–1, positive orders of reaction with respect to the hydrocarbon and negative orders with respect to hydrogen were generally found. No direct correlation between the catalytic activity and the metal particle size seems to exist. However, the apparent activation energies and pre-exponential factors increased with increasing ruthenium dispersion. This agrees with the concept that hydrogenolysis reactions are structure-sensitive reactions.