(555e) Effect of Catalyst Pretreatment on Methane Conversion Under Microwave-Assisted and Conventional Thermal Method

The utilization of remote associated flare gas through conversion into value added products at well-sites presents an opportunity to provide value to an otherwise wasted resource and to remediate serious environmental and economic challenges facing oil and gas producers. A microwave-based process offers rapid, volume-based heating which can provide on-demand chemical production and easily load follow the heat demands of the dynamic flows coming out of the well. The non-oxidative conversion of methane is a process intensified chemical process to produce value-added chemicals and gases such as aromatics and hydrogen. However, challenges of catalyst rapid coking and thermodynamic limitations are always in its way towards commercialization. A better understanding for catalyst carburization is still needed to control its fast deactivation. In this work, Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst was used as the most studied catalyst in literature for this reaction. The catalyst was activated under different gases: CO, syngas, and methane using microwave-assisted and conventional thermal methods. The correlations between the product yields and selectivities were correlated with activation gas used and heating mechanism applied to carburize Mo species. Modeling and characterization work are presented to determine the activity-structure relationship. Multiphysics numerical modeling work focused on understanding the effect of reactor geometry on fluid flow and heat transfer and its possible relation to catalyst activation.