Mitigating naturally occurring radioactive material in oxidative dehydrogenation

A system, comprising:

• an oxidative dehydrogenation reactor configured to:
• i) receive a feed stream comprising oxygen, a hydrocarbon and naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM);
• and ii) react at least a portion of the hydrocarbon with the oxygen to form a dehydrogenated hydrocarbon and water, an outlet of the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor configured to provide an effluent stream comprising the dehydrogenated hydrocarbon, water, a remaining unreacted portion of the hydrocarbon, and the NORM;
• a processing unit configured to:
• i) receive the effluent stream;
• and ii) process the effluent stream so that an outlet of the processing unit is configured to provide:
• i) a product stream comprising the dehydrogenated hydrocarbon;
• and ii) a recycle stream comprising the remaining unreacted portion of the hydrocarbon and the NORM;
• and
• a storage tank configured to store the recycle stream for a sufficient time period such that the NORM decays into a solid material, the storage tank fluidically coupled to the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor to recycle the remaining unreacted portion of the hydrocarbon from the recycle stream to the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor while the solid material remains within the storage tank.

A method, comprising:

• flowing a feed stream to an oxidative dehydrogenation reactor, the feed stream comprising oxygen, a hydrocarbon, and a naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM);
• reacting at least a portion of the hydrocarbon with the oxygen in the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor to form a dehydrogenated hydrocarbon and water;
• discharging an effluent stream from the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor, the effluent stream comprising the dehydrogenated hydrocarbon, water, a remaining unreacted portion of the hydrocarbon, and the NORM;
• processing the effluent stream to form a product stream and a recycle stream, the product stream comprising the dehydrogenated hydrocarbon, the recycle stream comprising the remaining unreacted portion of the hydrocarbon with less NORM than the feed stream;
• and
• flowing the recycle stream to the oxidative dehydrogenation reactor.