In situ formation of ZnO(x) species for efficient propane dehydrogenation

Propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to propene is an important alternative to oil-based cracking processes, to produce this industrially important platform chemical(1,2). The commercial PDH technologies utilizing Cr-containing (refs. (3,4)) or Pt-containing (refs. (5–8)) catalysts suffer from the toxicity of Cr(vi) compounds or the need to use ecologically harmful chlorine for catalyst regeneration(9). Here, we introduce a method for preparation of environmentally compatible supported catalysts based on commercial ZnO. This metal oxide and a support (zeolite or common metal oxide) are used as a physical mixture or in the form of two layers with ZnO as the upstream layer. Supported ZnO(x) species are in situ formed through a reaction of support OH groups with Zn atoms generated from ZnO upon reductive treatment above 550 °C. Using different complementary characterization methods, we identify the decisive role of defective OH groups for the formation of active ZnO(x) species. For benchmarking purposes, the developed ZnO–silicalite-1 and an analogue of commercial K–CrO(x)/Al(2)O(3) were tested in the same setup under industrially relevant conditions at close propane conversion over about 400 h on propane stream. The developed catalyst reveals about three times higher propene productivity at similar propene selectivity.