Electrocatalytic oxidative dehydrogenation of saturated hydrocarbons to unsaturated hydrocarbons

Abstract

An electrocatalytic process is described for producing unsaturated hydrocarbon compounds from saturated hydrocarbon compounds. The process is conducted in an electrogenerative cell and generally comprises the steps of (A) providing a fuel cell comprising a solid electrolyte having a first surface coated with conductive metal, metal oxide or mixtures thereof capable of catalyzing the reduction of oxygen to oxygen ions, and a second surface coated with metal, metal oxide or mixtures thereof, the two conductive coatings being connected by an external circuit, (B) passing an oxygen-containing gas in contact with the first conductive coating while, (C) passing the saturated hydrocarbon compound-containing feed gas in contact with the second conductive coating, and (D) recovering unsaturated hydrocarbons. In a preferred embodiment, the conductive metal coating on the first and second surfaces comprises a silver-containing metal composition. In another preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a continuous process for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene and acetylene while generating electricity in an electrogenerative reactor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.