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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.
About the author
was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1978. In 2003 she obtained her masters of science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In 2010 she finalized her PhD research at the Catalytic Processes and Materials group of the same University. She currently works as a research scientist at BASF in Germany.
