A novel catalyst material for the selective dehydrogenation of propane is presented. The catalyst consists of 1000 ppm Pt, 3 wt % Ga, and 0.25 wt % K supported on alumina. We observed a synergy between Ga and Pt, resulting in a highly active and stable catalyst. Additionally, we propose a bifunctional active phase, in which coordinately unsaturated Ga3+ species are the active species and where Pt functions as a promoter.

Transmission X-ray microscopy has been used to investigate individual Co/TiO2 Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst particles in 2-D and 3-D with 30 nm spatial resolution. Tomographic elemental mapping showed that Co is heterogeneously concentrated in the centre of the catalyst particles. In addition, it was found that Co is mostly metallic during FT at 250 °C and 10 bar. No evidence for Co oxidation was found.

The authors acknowledge financial support from The Dow Chemical Company. The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. We wish to thank to A. van der Eerden (Utrecht University) for his help with the design of the reactor cell. We further acknowledge P. Williams and T. Kao (SSRL) for their help during the data processing and R. Marks (SSRL) for the setting up of the gas flow system.Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://dx.

No abstract

A novel operando UV-Vis spectroscopic set-up has been constructed and tested for the investigation of catalyst bodies loaded in a pilot-scale reactor under relevant reaction conditions. Spatiotemporal insight into the formation and burning of coke deposits on an industrial CrO(x)/Al(2)O(3) catalyst during propane dehydrogenation has been obtained.