China University of Petroleum (East China) has developed an inexpensive and environmentally friendly TiO2catalyst for dehydrogenation of low‐carbon alkanes,which is an excellent substitute for the Pt series catalysts(with high production cost) and Cr series catalysts (with toxicity) coupled with apparent technical and economic benefits and high applicability.

In an embodiment example, the nitrogen treated TiO2catalyst was used in the ethane dehydrogenation reaction under conditions covering a reaction temperature of 600 ℃ and a total feed gas flowrate of 40 mL/min with a C2H6/N2volume ratio of 1:39.After the reaction was carried out for 6 hours, the ethane conversion reached 38%, while the ethylene selectivity was equal to 92%.