Oxidative conversion of propane over Al2O3-supported molybdenum and chromium oxides

Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane has been studied on Mo/gamma-Al2O3 catalysts with 13wt% of MoO3 and promoted with Cr. The catalysts were characterized by BET, X-ray diffraction, XPS, TPR, TPO and isopropanol decomposition. The ODH results indicated an important increase in propane conversion with Cr loading increase from 0 to 5 wt%. At 773 K the conversion increased 1.5 times whereas the selectivity to propene was not significantly modified. The higher activities obtained on Cr-doped catalysts provide for the technologically important possibility of carrying out the reaction at lower temperatures.