Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethane to Ethylene

Meeting Program — February 2013

 
Anne M. Gaffney
AMG Catal­y­sis and Chem­istry Con­sult­ing, LLC
 
Abstract — This sem­i­nar will dis­cuss a new­ly patent­ed cat­alyt­ic process and cat­a­lyst for the selec­tive, oxida­tive dehy­dro­gena­tion (ODH) of ethane to eth­yl­ene. Recent advances in shale gas tech­nol­o­gy, espe­cial­ly as prac­ticed in the Unit­ed States, has sig­nif­i­cant­ly improved the eco­nom­ics around pro­duc­ing eth­yl­ene and has rev­o­lu­tion­ized man­u­fac­tur­ing approach­es to basic chem­i­cals, poly­mers and mate­ri­als. Ethane is sec­ond to methane as a major hydro­car­bon com­po­nent of shale gas, serv­ing as the pre­cur­sor to eth­yl­ene. Eth­yl­ene is used to pro­duce a wide vari­ety of con­sumer goods, includ­ing pack­ag­ing, build­ing & auto­mo­tive mate­ri­als, fibers, tires and bot­tles. In 2012, a num­ber of U.S. chem­i­cal com­pa­nies announced plans to invest in new plant capac­i­ty, expand exist­ing facil­i­ties, or re-open plants near shale gas sup­plies, pri­mar­i­ly based on the assump­tion that the U.S. is enter­ing a peri­od of sus­tained low nat­ur­al gas prices and grow­ing sup­ply.

This selec­tive ODH process pro­vides an alter­na­tive to eth­yl­ene pro­duc­tion via naph­tha or ethane crack­ing. In addi­tion to replac­ing these crack­ers and recy­cle crack­ers, the eth­yl­ene prod­uct efflu­ent from the ODH process may be used to feed eth­yl benzene/styrene monomer and eth­yl­ene oxide plants. The syn­the­sis, char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and cat­alyt­ic appli­ca­tions of the new, M1 struc­tured, mixed met­al oxide cat­a­lyst will be reviewed.
 

Anne M.  Gaffney

Anne M. Gaffney

Biog­ra­phy — Dr. Anne M. Gaffney joined INVISTA™ in 2011 as Direc­tor of R&D, Spe­cial­ty Mate­ri­als and is cur­rent­ly Pro­gram Leader for C11/C12™ R&D. She was pre­vi­ous­ly VP of Tech­nol­o­gy at Lum­mus Tech­nol­o­gy. Oth­er pri­or indus­tri­al roles include Senior Research Fel­low at Rohm and Haas, Senior Research Asso­ciate at DuPont and Man­ag­er of Catal­y­sis at ARCO Chem­i­cal Com­pa­ny. Anne is the inven­tor/­co-inven­tor of over 100 patents and author/­co-author of over 80 pub­li­ca­tions. She was select­ed as an ACS Fel­low in 2010 and holds sev­er­al oth­er awards, includ­ing the 2013 ACS award in Indus­tri­al Chem­istry and the 1999 Philadel­phia Catal­y­sis Club Award. Anne received her Ph.D. in Phys­i­cal Organ­ic Chem­istry from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Delaware and her B.A. in Chem­istry and Math­e­mat­ics from Mount Holyoke Col­lege. Anne’s endeav­ors and inter­ests include R&D Lead­er­ship, break -through tech­nolo­gies, het­ero­ge­neous catal­y­sis, selec­tive oxi­da­tion, cat­a­lyst syn­the­sis and char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. He is the recip­i­ent of the New York Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Excel­lence in Catal­y­sis Award, the North Amer­i­can Catal­y­sis Soci­ety Frank Cia­pet­ta Lec­ture­ship Award, the ACS Heroes in Chem­istry Award, and the Her­man Pines in Catal­y­sis.