Investigating of Treated Natural Zeolite as a Catalyst Support for Propane Oxidative Dehydrogenation Process

 In recent years, industrial-scale production of propylene based on oxidative dehydrogenation of propane has been of particular importance due to the lack of thermodynamic limitations. In this regard, the use of natural zeolites with high abundance and low price has placed a special position. In this research, perlite natural zeolites were treated with ionic liquid solution and acid, then supported vanadium catalysis were synthesized. Performance of catalysis were investigated in oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene process with a mixed feed of propane and air in a fixed bed quartz reactor under condition of atmospheric pressure and temperature of 500˚C with a flow rate of 40000 h-1 (GHSV).

 In this study, natural perlite support as a source of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and silica (SiO2) was ion exchanged by one molar solution of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3 1 M). Continuously, to investigate the effect of delamination, different acid molar concentrations of nitric acid (HNO3) equal to 0.75, 1.5, and 2.25 were used and then compared with the just modified ion exchange sample without acid leaching (V/PERLIT-I). Dry vanadium impregnation, as an active metal, was carried out to synthesize 8% wt. catalysts. X-ray diffraction analyzes (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and ammonia Temperature-programmed desorption program (NH3-TPD) were used to characterization and evaluate the properties of the catalyst.
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The results showed that the concentration of acid used affects the conversion and selectivity of the catalysis. In comparison, a significant difference was observed between the performance of V/PERLIT-I sample compared to V/PERLIT-IA samples. The maximum selectivity value for V/PERLIT-IA(2.25) was 74%. According to the results, the treated perlite support with suitable selectivity can be considered in the studies of use as an industrial support.