Kinetics and mechanism of partial oxidation of ethane to ethylene and acetic acid over MoV type catalysts Original Research Article

A kinetics study for the partial oxidation of ethane to ethylene and acetic acid is performed over MoV type catalysts. It is established that ethylene is the primary product and acetic acid and carbon oxides are secondary products. Formation of acetic acid product increases significantly with the co-feeding of water into the reactor. The elementary steps of the reaction network are formulated using a two-site Eley-Rideal-Redox (ERR) model, which includes the participation of water in the reaction scheme through surface OH− groups. The derived ERR model predicts the experimental data satisfactorily.