Comparative study of propane oxidative dehydrogenation in fluidized and fixed bed reactor

Supported vanadia catalyst was successfully synthesized using wet impregnation of γ-alumina to study propane oxidative dehydrogenation (POD). The prepared catalysts were characterized with X-ray diffraction and BET tests. To investigate performance of fluidized bed reactor in comparison to fixed bed micro-reactor, propane conversion and propylene selectivity were measured in temperatures of 480 to 550°C and GHSV of 48000, 60000, and 78000 cc/gr.hr at equimolar feed ratio of propane to oxygen. The results indicated that at constant temperature propane conversion obtained in the fixed bed reactor was higher. But fluidized bed is superior to fixed bed reactor in terms of propylene selectivity leading to considerably higher propylene yields over the fixed bed. It is suggested that pre-filtering effect induced by hydrodynamics of fluidized bed reactor has major effect in the enhancement of propylene selectivity beyond that of fixed bed micro-reactor.