Process and system for producing a product hydrocarbon

A method for producing a product hydrocarbon, comprising:

• subjecting a feed hydrocarbon in a feed mixture containing the feed hydrocarbon and oxygen to selective oxidation in a reactor having a catalyst bed to obtain a product mixture containing the product hydrocarbon and water, wherein the feed hydrocarbon is ethane and the product hydrocarbon is ethylene and the selective oxidation is carried out in the form of oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane;
• and
• forming a subsequent mixture from at least part of the product mixture by separating at least part of the water;
• wherein:
• the method is carried out in such a way that the oxygen contained in the feed mixture is partially converted during the selective oxidation, so that the product mixture has a first residual oxygen content and the subsequent mixture has a second residual oxygen content;
• a detection of the first and/or of the second residual oxygen content is carried out using at least one first measuring device;
• at least one second measuring device is provided at an outlet end of the catalyst bed, which second measuring device is set up to detect a variable characterizing an operating stability, the variable characterizing the operating stability being a temperature at the outlet end of the catalyst bed;
• using a process control and/or evaluation unit, measurement data of the at least one first measuring device and/or the at least one second measuring device are detected over a detection period and are evaluated and/or processed to obtain follow-up data;
• process control is carried out on the basis of the follow-up data, wherein the process control comprises adjusting at least one operating parameter;
• the reactor used for the selective oxidation is cooled using at least one coolant;
• and
• the at least one operating parameter represents or comprises a coolant temperature of the at least one coolant or an oxygen content of the feed mixture.