Microwave Heating of the Catalyst Bed as a Way of Energy-Saving Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane on a Mo-V-Te-Nb-O(x) Catalyst

In search of a more effective process of ethane oxidative hydrogenation, different operation modes (thermal and microwave heating) are compared. The catalyst Mo(1)-V(0.3)-Te(0.13)-Nb(0.11)-O(x) was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by a set of physicochemical methods (XRD, N(2) adsorption, SEM, EDX). The direct microwave heating of the catalyst layer is proposed as an alternative way of energy-saving ethane-to-ethylene oxidation by a Mo-V-Te-Nb-O(x) system. A substantial decrease in the reactor temperature upon the microwave-assisted process is accompanied by extremely high catalyst selectivity, which remains at a very high level of 98+%.