Highly active catalyst for dehydrogenation of alkanes and method of preparation thereof

A process for preparation of a catalyst for dehydrogenation of alkane, wherein the process comprises:

• (a) wet grinding of carbonaceous material to obtain a grinded paste of the carbonaceous material;
• (b) adding alumina to an organic acid solution under stirring for 15-20 minutes to form alumina gel and ageing the gel for 15-20 minutes;
• (c) preparing aqueous solution of salts of metals of Groups IA and/or VIB and/or VIII using suitable metal salts;
• (d) adding the grinded paste of the carbonaceous material obtained in step (a) and the aqueous solution of salts of metals obtained in step (c) to the alumina gel obtained in step (b) to obtain a homogeneous catalyst slurry;
• (e) drying the catalyst slurry obtained in step (d) at 100-150° C. for 12-16 hours to get a dry cake of catalyst;
• (f) crushing the dry cake of catalyst obtained in step (e) and sieving to obtain catalyst particles of 0.5-1.0 mm for fixed bed operation and particles of 20-200μ for fluidized bed operation;
• (g) calcining the catalyst particles obtained in step (f) at 600-650° C. at a ramp rate of 2.0° C./min for 2 hours in presence of air;
• and
• (h) reducing the catalyst obtained in step (g) in a fixed bed/fixed-fluidized bed reactor using hydrogen gas, at 600-800° C. at a controlled flow rate to obtain final catalyst.