In search of a more effective process of ethane oxidative hydrogenation, different operation modes (thermal and microwave heating) are compared. The catalyst Mo₁-V_0.3-Te_0.13-Nb_0.11-O_x was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by a set of physicochemical methods (XRD, N₂ adsorption, SEM, EDX). The direct microwave heating of the catalyst layer is proposed as an alternative way of energy-saving ethane-to-ethylene oxidation by a Mo-V-Te-Nb-O_x system. A substantial decrease in the reactor temperature upon the microwave-assisted process is accompanied by extremely high catalyst selectivity, which remains at a very high level of 98+%.

The cheap non-noble Cu–SiO₂-based nanocatalysts are under intensive study in different reactions resulting in useful chemicals, yet their application in environment protection is poorly studied. In the present work, the influence of the Cu loading (3–15 wt%) on the catalytic behavior of Cu/SiO₂ materials was first precisely studied in the hydrogenation of hazardous trinitrobenzene to valuable aromatic amines with molecular hydrogen. The catalysts have been synthesized by the method of deposition–precipitation using urea. The catalyst characterization by XRD, TPR-H₂, SEM, TEM, and N₂ adsorption methods confirmed that they include nanoparticles of the micro-mesoporous chrysocolla-like phase supported in the mesopores of a commercial SiO₂ carrier, as well as revealed formation of the highly dispersed CuO phase in the sample with the highest Cu loading. Variation in reaction conditions showed the optimal ones (170 °C, 1.3 MPa H₂) resulting in complete trinitrobenzene conversion with a triaminobenzene yield of 65% for the catalyst with a 15% Cu loading, and the best yield of 82% was obtained over the catalyst with 10% Cu calcined at 600 °C. The results show the potential of Cu phyllosilicate-based catalysts for the utilization of trinitroaromatic compounds via catalytic hydrogenation to amines and their possible applications in a remediation treatment system.