Enhanced Catalytic Performance of Fe-containing HZSM-5 for Ethane Non-Oxidative Dehydrogenation via Hydrothermal Post-Treatment

A facile strategy is applied to construct Fe supported ZSM-5 (Fe/HZ5-HTS) via hydrothermal post-treatment and applied to ethane non-oxidative dehydrogenation. Compared with Fe/HZ5-IWI prepared by incipient wetness impregnation, Fe/HZ5-HTS exhibits superior catalytic activity and long catalyst stability with 6000 minutes time-on-stream. An obvious volcanic curve is observed between the ethylene generation rate and Fe content, and 1.0Fe/HZ5-HTS exhibits the highest ethylene generation rate with 0.166 mmol C2H4 s(-1) g(Fe)(-1) over different Fe loading, which is twice as much as that of 1.0Fe/HZ5-IWI. According to various characterizations, isolated Fe3+ species and carburized Fe species are active sites, and the better catalytic performance over 1.0Fe/HZ5-HTS is ascribed to more disperse Fe species and exposing more Fe species in the surface. Besides, the lower ethylene desorption temperature and higher ethane desorption temperature over Fe/HZ5-HTS could suppress the overreaction of the ethylene to generate coke and increase ethane residence reaction time, resulting in less coke deposition and facilitating the catalytic performance.

Automated summary

The facile strategy of constructing Fe supported ZSM-5 (Fe/HZ5-HTS) through hydrothermal post-treatment shows superior catalytic activity and long-term stability in ethane non-oxidative dehydrogenation. The better catalytic performance is attributed to the more dispersed and exposed Fe species acting as active sites.