The use of niobia in oxidation catalysis

This paper summarises the background to work carried out at the University of Twente on the use of niobia as a catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene and discusses the development of promoted niobia catalysts for this reaction. Results are also presented which illustrate the use of niobia in catalysts for other reactions such as the oxidative coupling of methane, the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane and the oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol. It appears that niobia and niobia-modified catalysts, when used in high-temperature oxidation processes, can exhibit relatively high selectivities compared with more conventional catalysts.