Dehydrogenation processes play an important role in the petrochemical industry. High selectivity towards olefins is usually hindered by numerous side reactions in a conventional cracking/pyrolysis technology. Herein, we show recent studies devoted to selective ethylene production via oxidative and non-oxidative reactions. This review summarizes the progress that has been achieved with ethane conversion in terms of the process effectivity. Briefly, steam cracking, catalytic dehydrogenation, oxidative dehydrogenation (with CO₂/O₂), membrane technology, and chemical looping are reviewed.

Processes for the manufacturing of ethylbenzene (EB), one of the most important high-volume petrochemicals, have been surveyed. Trends concerning the use of catalysts and technologies for this purpose have been discussed. It has been shown that the transalkylation of benzene with diethylbenzenes is an integral part of modern EB production units. Catalysts based on beta, Y, and mordenite zeolites have been subjected to comparative testing in the transalkylation process. Data on the correlation of the physicochemical and catalytic properties of the test catalysts are presented, and a rapid procedure for evaluating the catalyst stability under laboratory conditions is described. Catalyst samples based on zeolite Y, which turned out to be the most active in the transalkylation reaction, have been tested for a life time on a pilot unit. Data on the effect of the process parameters on the output characteristics are presented, and basic guidelines for selection of the optimal process conditions are given. The numerical values of the kinetic parameters describing experimental data for the transalkylation reaction have been determined.

A trend in the development of catalytic cracking, one of the most important high-production-volume refinery processes, is integration into deep-conversion refinery complexes. We address studies on variation in the diesel/gasoline ratio and the processing of vacuum tower bottoms, renewable biomass, and polymer-containing wastes in complex facilities involving catalytic cracking and hydroconversion on nanosized heterogeneous catalysts.

Toughening the quality standards for petroleum fuels suggests a substantial reduction in the amount of aromatic hydrocarbons in these fuels; in particular, the benzene content should not exceed 1.0%. Securing these requirements by legislation forces oil refiners to revise the hydrocarbon-group composition of motor gasolines and, hence, the engineering basis of their manufacture. The main world tendency for the hydrocarbongroup composition of motor gasoline is to increase the proportion of isoparaffins from 20 to 45%, which is equivalent to a reduction in the amount of aromatic hydrocarbons from 42 to 25%. The designing of a new industrial process for isobutane alkylation with olefins and the discovery of the new reaction of reductive dehydration of alcohols yielding isoparaffinic and, in particular, alkylcyclopentane hydrocarbons contribute to the production of alternative, environmentally safe motor fuels.

The effect of ultrasonication on the efficiency of ion exchange in a binder-free pelleted NaX zeolite (the molar ratio Si/Al = 1.34) has been studied using successive treatments with calcium,...

The equilibrium product composition for the reaction of ethane dehydrogenation to ethylene with various quantities of oxygen fed to the reaction medium has been calculated using methods of chemical thermodynamics. Quantum-chemical calculation of the energy of interaction of ethane with molybdenum dioxide, used as an example, has shown that the absolute energy minimum in the energy profile of the potential energy surface along the ethane dehydrogenation reaction coordinate corresponds to the complex MoO₂⋯H₂⋯C₂H₄.