Temperature hysteresis phenomena in heterogeneous catalysis

Temperature hysteresis is observed only in exothermic heterogeneous catalytic reactions (viz., oxidation and methanation of CO or propene hydrogenation) and is absent in the case of endothermic reactions (dehydrogenation of isobutane) or reactions with heat close to zero (viz., 2-butene isomerization). Temperature hysteresis in hydrogenation reactions was discovered for the first time. The concept of local overheating of catalyst active sites caused by poor removal of the reaction heat is proposed to provide a noncontradictory interpretation of the appearance of hysteresis loops.