Coal as an Effective Catalyst for Selective Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane to Propene

Coal is a readily available and inexpensive material. However, its direct use as a catalyst is still rare, but attractive for practical application. In this paper, coal was directly used as a catalyst for the selective oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene. It exhibited a high selectivity over 90% with a yield of 8.4% at a high space velocity (12,000 mL·(h·g-cat)−1). The productivity up to 2.84 gC3H6gcat−1h−1was obtained with propene selectivity above 80% (20,000 mL·(h·g-cat)−1). The kinetic showed first-order dependence with respect to propane or oxygen partial pressures. Meanwhile, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) demonstrated that the carbonyl groups act as active sites for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene. This work expands the use of earth-abundant and low-price coal in catalysis with expectable scale application.Keywords:coal;catalysis;kinetics;oxidative dehydrogenation;propane;propene