The kinetics of oxidative dehydrogenation of butene to butadiene over B-02 ferrite catalyst has been studied in an internal recirculation gradientless reactor. The experiments were conducted over a wide range of water to olefin ratio

and a large variation in the partial pressures of oxygen

butene

and butadiene. The kinetic models developed were based on a consecutive parallel reaction scheme: butene-butadiene carbon dioxide and were supported by the results obtained. The change in temperature had less effect on the ratio r8/r2. When the partial pressure of butadiene was high

the formation of carbon dioxide from butadiene was much greater than that from butene. A model with best fit was obtained as follows: The model obtained comprises both typical redox expressions and power rate expressions and is shown to be compatible with Mars-Van Krevelen redox mechanism. The model fitted the experimental data at high water/olefin ratio as well as those at very low water/olefin ratio. The effect of butadiene on the reaction rate was investigated through introducing additional butadiene to the fresh butene feed. It was observed that butadiene showed slight inhibition to r1

but hindered the combustion rate of butene to a much greater extent. It was also observed that the selectivity declined much at a high temperature. Low water/olefin ratio greatly enhanced carbon dioxide formation.