A high propylene productivity over B2O3/SiO2@honeycomb cordierite catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane

Boron-based metal-free catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) have drawn great attention in both academia and industry due to their impressive activity and olefin selectivity. Herein, the SiO2 and B2O3 sequentially coated honeycomb cordierite catalyst is designed by a two-step wash-coat method with different B2O3 loadings (0.1%–10%) and calcination temperatures (600, 700, 800 °C). SiO2 obtained by TEOS hydrolysis acts as a media layer to bridge the cordierite substrate and boron oxide via abundant SiOH groups. The well-developed straight channels of honeycomb cordierite make it possible to carry out the reactor under high gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) and the thin wash-coated B2O3 layer can effectively facilitate the pore diffusion on the catalyst. The prepared B2O3/SiO2@HC monolithic catalyst exhibits good catalytic performance at low boron oxide loading and achieves excellent propylene selectivity (86.0%), olefin selectivity (97.6%, propylene and ethylene) and negligible CO2 (0.1%) at 16.9% propane conversion under high GHSV of 345,600 ml·(g B2O3)−1·h−1, leading to a high propylene space time yield of 15.7 g C3H6·(g B2O3)−1·h−1 by suppressing the overoxidation. The obtained results strongly indicate that the boron-based monolithic catalyst can be properly fabricated to warrant the high activity and high throughput with its high gas/surface ratio and straight channels.