Catalytic composite and improved process for dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons

A process of producing an olefin by adiabatic, non-oxidative dehydrogenation of an alkane, comprising:

• (a) preparing a fixed bed catalyst comprising at least one layer of a catalytic composite, the catalytic composite comprising a dehydrogenation catalyst, a semimetal and a carrier;
• (b) reducing the fixed bed catalyst to generate a first heat supply, which is released by the semimetal, that is passed into the fixed bed catalyst;
• (c) contacting a feed stream comprising the alkane with the reduced fixed bed catalyst to endothermically dehydrogenate the alkane, wherein the thermal energy consumed by the dehydrogenation is at least partially provided by the first heat supply;
• (d) steam purging and oxidizing the fixed bed catalyst to regenerate the fixed bed catalyst and oxidize the semimetal and to optionally generate a second heat supply;
• and
• (e) optionally repeating (b) to (d) for multiple cycles.