Authors:

Ally Guo

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About Paper:

Ethylene is a key chemical used to manufacture plastics and many other materials. Demand for such materials is projected to grow, however ethylene is produced through ethane dehydrogenation (EDH) at high temperatures, one of the most energy and carbon intensive processes in the chemical industry. This project aims to develop a protonic ceramic electrochemical reactor for EDH with heterogenous metal catalysts dispersed in a porous anode. Using an electrochemical reactor instead of a thermal reactor reduces energy costs and CO2 emissions associated with EDH because the reaction is driven by renewable electricity instead of heat from burning fossil fuels. Unlike thermal reactors, the physical design of the electrochemical reactor also allows for the ethylene to be intrinsically separated from other species, further reducing energy costs for ethylene production. Electrochemical cells loaded with different metal catalysts were characterized using XRD and SEM to evaluate the cell and catalyst structure. SEM revealed that catalysts loaded via solution infiltration allowed the catalyst to be dispersed evenly throughout the pores of the anode, resulting in high catalyst surface area and loading. Because of the higher surface area and loading, cells with catalyst exhibited higher activity compared to reference cells. The properties of the catalyst itself resulted in higher selectivity for ethylene during EDH, and improved stability due to decreased catalyst deactivation due to coking. Further work is needed to optimize cell fabrication and reactor conditions, but this work demonstrates a promising electrochemical reactor design with high selectivity, activity, and stability for decarbonizing ethylene production. Keywords: [no keywords provided]

Source:

Purdue University / 2025

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Co-authors:

Ally Guo