Creating Environmentally Friendly Production Processes by Conjugated Reactions

For the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene into styrene, a composite catalyst based on copper (II) oxide, which carries out steam conversion of carbon monoxide, and an aluminothermic catalyst, which is a catalyst for the dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, have been synthesised. Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene was carried out on this catalyst in the presence of air oxygen and carbon dioxide. It was found that although the conversion of benzene during oxidative dehydrogenation in the presence of oxygen is high, the selectivity for styrene is low, in which case benzene, toluene, methane, ethane, CO and CO2 are formed more. The process itself requires strict control as the oxygen: hydrogen mixture is dangerous. When the process is carried out in the presence of CO2, although the conversion of ethylbenzene is relatively low, the selectivity for styrene is high and the yield of by-products is negligible. The synthesised catalyst enables the conjugation of the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene in the presence of CO2 with the steam conversion of carbon monoxide produced during the process. Thus, CO is converted to carbon dioxide in the reaction itself and cannot escape from the reaction medium. Conjugation of oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene into styrene with steam conversion of carbon monoxide allows one to obtain environmentally friendly styrene and hydrogen. It was determined that the realisation of conjugated reactions in the presence of composite catalysts is an innovative and promising method of creating ecologically clean production areas that meet the requirements of green chemistry.