Pretreating metal oxide catalysts for alkane dehydrogenation

A method of catalytic dehydrogenation of a light alkane gas, the method comprising steps:

• (a) pretreating a metal oxide catalyst comprising surface-bound H2O or CO2 with dimethylether (DME) to obtain dehydroxylation or decarboxylation of the catalyst via DME reactions with the H2O or CO2, respectively, providing a DME-cleaned catalyst, the pretreating step occurring prior to contacting the catalyst with the alkane gas;
• and thereafter,
• (b) reacting the alkane gas catalytically on the DME-cleaned catalyst in a dehydrogenation reaction, under conditions wherein the pretreating improves product yield of the reaction, wherein:
• the pretreating improves product yield at least 2-fold compared with a comparable reaction without the pretreating step,
• the metal oxide is ZrO2, and
• the pretreating is performed within a temperature range of 323-900 K.