An anaerobic process for the conversion of light alkane to nitriles and olefins

Description:

Overview of Technology

A technology that produces nitriles and olefins from light alkanes via an anaerobic process

Background 

Light alkanes, such as ethane is the main ingredient in natural gas liquids. However, it requires higher energy to directly break the stable C-H bond of ethane, making the conversion of ethane a challenging topic.

In current industry, ethane was converted to ethylene through steaming cracking, which is a non-catalytic process requiring a high reaction temperature of up to 800 degrees. Ethane can also be converted into ethylene and acetonitrile through ammoxidation in the presence of both O2 and NH3. However, the formation of CO2 during such oxidative process can’t be avoided.

Description of technology

This invention provides an anaerobic catalytic process to produce nitriles, olefins and H2 from light alkanes and ammonia through ammo dehydrogenation. The catalysts are comprised of metal sites and aluminosilicate zeolites and a binder.

For ethane ammo dehydrogenation, the reaction can be operated under a temperature range of 350-650 degrees and atmospheric pressure. Under optimized conditions, the overall selectivity to ethylene and acetonitrile could reach 100%. The selectivity ratio between acetonitrile and ethylene can be tuned.

Benefits 

  • Catalyst is stable for more than 24hr time-on-stream and the deactivated catalysts due to coking can be easily regenerated through coke burn-off
  • Easily applicable to be operated in industry with a switch reactor or moving bed reactor
  • The anaerobic process produces high purity hydrogen as the co-product, which can be used for PEMFC or use for ammonia synthesis to produce NH3

Applications

Petrochemical, medicine, pesticide and paint industries would benefit from this technology.

Opportunities

Petrochemical industrial and paint industries would be interested in this invention. The invention is currently in the product concept stage of development and would benefit from further development.