Investigation of molybdenum and cerium source in an improved catalystfor the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene

The effect of molybdenum and cerium oxides on the activity and selectivity of iron-based catalysts forthe dehydrogenation reaction of ethylbenzene (EB) in an integrated fixed bed reactor was investigated.Using both cerium and molybdenum oxides has a more advantageous effect on the activity andselectivity of the iron oxide dehydrogenation catalyst than using either alone. The catalyst wassynthesized with different initial sources of cerium and molybdenum shch as carbonate, oxide or nitrate.It was found that the best source for using cerium and molybdenum is its carbonate and oxide forms,respectively. The physicochemical properties of synthesized catalysts were investigated by using X-raydiffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and reactor tests for ۳۶ hours. Finally, thesynthetic catalyst was evaluated and compared with the commertial catalyst produced by BASFcompany. It was confirmed that using a suitable source of industrial cerium and molybdenumcompounds during the ۳۶h reactor test can provide a catalyst with better properties than the commertialBASF catalyst.