5. Conclusions and outlook

The oxidation reactions mentioned here are just a few of those that have either been implemented industrially, or are still being researched. Among trials to replace alkenes and certain aromatics with alkanes, the oxidation of propane to acrylic acid, is very close to industrialization, but that of pentane to phthalic anhydride or isobutane to methacrylic acid over heteropolyacid catalysts (notably H ₄ PMo ₁₁ VO ₄₀ and its salts) has still not reached the pilot stage. The direct one-step oxidation of cyclohexane to adipic acid still seems to be in the realm of dreams... The production of ethylene and propylene, for which there is a very high demand in polymerization, would be advantageously enhanced by the controlled dehydrogenating oxidation of C...