Propane (C
3
H
8
) and butane (C
4
H
10
) are short straight-chain
alkane molecules that are difficult
to convert catalytically. Analogous to propane, butane can be dehydrogenated
to butenes (also known as butylenes) or butadiene, which are used
industrially as raw materials when synthesizing various chemicals
(plastics, rubbers, etc.). In this study, we present results of detailed
first-principles-based multiscale modelling of butane dehydrogenation,
consisting of three size- and time-scales. The reaction is modelled
over Cr
2
O
3
(0001) chromium oxide, which is commonly
used in the industrial setting. A complete 108-step reaction pathway
of butane (C
4
H
10
) dehydrogenation was studied,
yielding 1-butene (CH
2
CHCH
2
CH
3
) and
2-butene (CH
3
CHCHCH
3
), 1-butyne (CHCCH
2
CH
3
) and 2-butyne (CH
3
CCCH
3
), butadiene
(CH
2
CHCHCH
2
), butenyne (CH
2
CHCCH),
and ultimately butadiyne (CHCCCH). We include cracking and coking
reactions (yielding C
1
, C
2
, and C
3
hydrocarbons) in the model to provide a thorough description of
catalyst deactivation as a function of the temperature and time. Density
functional theory calculations with the Hubbard
U
model were used to study the reaction on the atomistic scale, resulting
in the complete energetics and first-principles kinetic parameters
for the dehydrogenation reaction. They were cast in a kinetic model
using mean-field microkinetics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.
The former was used to obtain gas equilibrium conditions in the steady-state
regime, which were fed in the latter to provide accurate surface kinetics.
A full reactor simulation was used to account for the macroscopic
properties of the catalytic particles: their loading, specific surface
area, and density and reactor parameters: size, design, and feed gas
flow. With this approach, we obtained first-principles estimates of
the catalytic conversion, selectivity to products, and time dependence
of the catalyst activity, which can be paralleled to experimental
data. We show that 2-butene is the most abundant product of dehydrogenation,
with selectivity above 90% and turn-over frequency above 10
–3
s
–1
at
T
= 900 K. Butane conversion
is below 5% at such low temperature, but rises above 40% at
T
> 1100 K. Activity starts to drop after ∼6 h
because
of surface poisoning with carbon. We conclude that the dehydrogenation
of butane is a viable alternative to conventiona...