Ethylene yield in oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane and ethane containing hydrocarbon mixtures

A method for the oxidative dehydrogenation of a hydrocarbon feed stream comprising ethane and one or both of methane and propane to produce a product stream comprising ethylene, the method comprising the steps of

• combining a recycle stream comprising methane with the hydrocarbon feed stream to form a reactor feed stream;
• contacting the reactor feed stream with an oxide-based redox catalyst to produce the product stream, wherein the product stream comprises ethylene, methane and one or more additional byproducts selected from the group consisting of ethane and other heavy hydrocarbons selected from the group consisting of C3 hydrocarbons and C4 hydrocarbons, and wherein the ethylene in the product stream is produced by simultaneously converting at least a part of both the ethane from the feed stream and the methane from the reactor feed stream into ethylene;
• removing all or a part of the methane from the product stream to produce the recycle stream;
• and
• wherein the hydrocarbon feed stream comprises about 1% to 15% methane,
• wherein the method further comprises removing the heavy hydrocarbons from the product stream to produce the recycle stream;
• and
• wherein at least 50% of the heavy hydrocarbons are recycled and converted to produce ethylene.