Deoxydehydration

Deoxydehydration (DODH) is a chemical reaction for removing two adjacent hydroxyl groups in a vicinal diol to form an alkene.^[1] In contrast to hydrodeoxygenation which uses hydrogen as a reductant, deoxydehydration is able to use a variety of other reductants such as alcohols and organic phosphines.^[2] In research, the most common homogeneous catalysts for this reaction use rhenium.

Recently, research has focused on the use of vanadium heterogeneous catalysts for deoxydehydration, such as the conversion of 2,3-butanediol to butene.^[3] Although deoxydehydration over vanadium catalysts requires higher temperatures than over rhenium catalysts, the reaction can proceed without the need for hydrogen or external reductants, which can reduce waste products.^[3][4]