Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane over mixed metal oxide catalysts: Autothermal or cooled tubular reactor design?

Abstract A kinetic model consistent with experimentally measured reaction orders for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODHE) over a MoVTeNbO catalyst is developed and applied to compare autothermal and multi‐tubular reactor designs for the same. The results suggest that autothermal reactor configurations are more favorable compared to multi‐tubular ones for this highly exothermic reaction, and become even more so with increasing active site density. A bifurcation analysis based on ignition and extinction behavior is presented as a function of adiabatic temperature rise (varied by altering the feed ethane to oxygen molar ratio) and catalyst active site density (varied by altering the pre‐exponential factor), thereby providing additional insights into strategies for successful scale‐up of ODHE reactors. These strategies for the design of viable reactor configurations may be more broadly applicable to high temperature catalytic partial oxidation reactions currently in practice or under consideration in the context of large‐scale processes for chemical production.