Pathways for Ethane Conversion to Ethylene and Regulation of Lattice Oxygen in Ethane Chemical looping Oxygen Carriers: A Review

Abstract

Ethylene is a fundamental petrochemical feedstock, and efficient, low-carbon ethane-to-ethylene processes are gaining increasing importance. This paper reviews major process routes, including steam cracking dehydrogenation, catalytic dehydrogenation, oxidative dehydrogenation, chemical looping, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and membrane reaction technologies. It focuses on discussing the oxygen regulation mechanisms within ethane chemical looping technologies. The key conclusion is that the performance of chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation is primarily governed by oxygen chemistry, where ethylene selectivity reflects the kinetic competition between the target dehydrogenation reaction and secondary olefin oxidation reactions, which is determined by the carrier oxygen supply and reaction reactivity. High selectivity therefore requires constraining oxygen reactivity within a narrow, dynamically tunable window rather than maximizing oxygen participation. Moreover, the review also distills oxygen-carrier design principles linking oxygen capacity, lattice-oxygen mobility, and reactive oxygen species, and summarizes compositional and structural strategies (e.g., doping and phase/interface engineering) to balance redox stability with selectivity. To provide theoretical guidance for constructing high-performance oxygen carriers for oxidation dehydrogenation in the ethane chemical looping.