Effect of Sodium Tungstate Promoter on the Reduction Kinetics of CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3 for Chemical Looping – Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane

Reduction kinetics of unpromoted and Na2WO4-promoted CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3 redox catalysts are measured in the context of chemical looping-oxidative dehydrogenation (CL-ODH). CL-ODH is a promising alternative for ethylene production compared to steam cracking, as it reduces the energy demand and increases the single-pass ethane conversion. The ability of a redox catalyst for selective hydrogen combustion (SHC), i.e. selectively oxidizing hydrogen co-product from ethane dehydrogenation, represents an effective strategy for CL-ODH because it can shift the reaction equilibrium and facilitate exothermic overall reaction. In this work, kinetic models and parameters of unpromoted and Na2WO4-promoted, Fe-doped CaMnO3 (CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3) under H2 and C2H4 were investigated. The reduction of unpromoted CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3 follows reaction-order models. C2H4 reduction has a higher energy barrier and a greater dependence on active lattice oxygen concentration, resulting in an order-of-magnitude decrease in the reduction rate. In comparison, the reduction of Na2WO4-promoted CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3 follows an Avrami-Erofe’ev nucleation and nuclei growth model. The addition of Na2WO4 more significantly suppressed C2H4 combustion relative to H2 oxidation. As a result, the reduction rate of Na2WO4-promoted CaMn0.9Fe0.1O3 under H2 was three orders of magnitude greater than that under C2H4, demonstrating its excellent SHC properties. The resulting redox catalyst was shown to be effective for ethane CL-ODH with measured 90.5% ethylene selectivity and 41.6% ethylene yield at 750 °C. The kinetics models and parameters provide useful information for CL-ODH reactor design and further development of the redox catalyst.