Patent ID: 11890594
Assignee: UOP LLC
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  C  Y | IPC B  C

Claim 9:
10. A method of oxidative dehydrogenating ethane to ethylene in the presence of a mixed-metal oxide catalyst comprising contacting a gas composition containing ethane with the mixed metal oxide catalyst in the temperature range of 300-450° C., a pressure of 15 psig, a gas hourly space velocity of 2000 cm3/h per gram of the mixed metal oxide catalyst, wherein the gas composition having a ratio of ethane:O2:N2 in a range from 1.6:1:5 to 2:1:5; wherein the mixed metal oxide catalyst prepared by the method comprising:
a. preparing a catalyst precursor comprising molybdenum, vanadium, at least one of niobium or tantalum, and at least one of tellurium or antimony;
b. pressing the catalyst precursor into a dense pellet using a pressure of greater than about 5,000 psi;
c. annealing the dense pellet at a temperature of from about 525° C. to about 700° C. in a non-oxidative environment for a period of from about 0.5 hours to about 24 hours to form the mixed-metal oxide catalyst; and
d. optionally grinding the mixed-metal oxide catalyst into a fine powder and repeating steps (b) and (c),
wherein after annealing of the dense pellet in step (c), the mixed-metal oxide catalyst is characterized by a local distribution of elements comprising of a standard deviation in molybdenum decreasing in a range of σMo=9.5 wt % to σ<3.2 wt %, and a standard deviation in vanadium decreasing in a range of σv=3.3 wt % to σv<0.9 wt %.