INFLUENCE OF MO-DOPING ON VPO CATALYST FOR PARTIAL OXIDATION OF ETHANE

Six movpo catalysts were prepared with mo/v ratios of 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 and p/v of 1.15 for all catalysts,using an isobutanol – benzylalcohol solvent. molybdenum was introduced to the vpo catalyst by impregnation. xrd, icp, bet and sem were used for the catalyst characterization. a maximum acetic acid yield of 1.1 % was obtained using contact time of 3.6 sec. at 573 k and 1360 kpa using vpo catalyst with mo/v ratio of 0.2 calcined at 723 k under nitrogen flow. at these conditions the ethane conversion was 2.8% and acetic acid and ethylene selectivities were about equal at 37%. mo has the effect of decreasing the ethane conversion and increasing acetic acid selectivity with the initial increase of mo/v ratio then the selectivity drop to zero at mo/v = 0.5. it was found that exposing the catalyst to a reactant mixture lean in ethane at elvated temperature overnight before starting the reaction ,resulted in an increase in acetic acid selectivity.