Oxidative Cracking of N-hexane: a Catalytic Pathway to Olefins

Catalytic Oxidative Cracking of n-Hexane is investigated as an alternative route to steam cracking for light olefin production. Light olefins are the building blocks for the petrochemical industry. In a rapidly growing world market for the production of new synthetic materials (plastics), demand for these petrochemicals is tremendously increasing. Propylene and butylene yields from current production technologies (steam cracking, fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC), oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH)) are insufficient to satisfy the growing demand, urging interest in alternative processes for light olefin production. This PhD research work aimed towards achieving higher selectivities to both propylene and butylenes than steam cracking. Mo/Li/MgO is an efficient catalyst for oxidative cracking of n-hexane. The catalyst has minimal red-ox activity and results in reasonably high yields of olefins. Furthermore, plasma induced experiments resulted in higher yields of olefins.