Abstract:
Process for the oxidation of gaseous hydrocarbons or hydrocarbons in the gaseous or vapour state, in heterogeneous phase, which comprises producing, at a temperature below 100*C, a circulation or continuous flow of a gaseous mixture or of gas and vapours containing the hydrocarbon to be oxidised and oxygen into contact with a catalyst subjected to ultra-violet radiation, this catalyst being constituted by a metal oxide containing or retaining by adsorption molecules of oxygen which are mobile under irradiation, such as titanium dioxide, the ultra-violet radiation being at least partly within the domain of wavelengths lower than the wave length of the radiation whose energy is that of the prohibited bandwidth of the oxide.