Frontier Catalysis Research for Methane Conversion to Chemicals I (Invited Talks)

The sea-change in gas production brought on by the emergence of shale resources has created unprecedented opportunities for conversion of both natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) to useful products, especially high-value chemical feedstocks. Much of the shale gas, however, is produced in remote locations without economical means of processing, storing, and transporting it to chemical plants. Consequently, most of the gas is flared – thus wasting a valuable hydrogen-rich resource and contributing to carbon dioxide emissions with their attendant impact on climate change for generations to come. Effective utilization of orphaned shale gas must address its major component – methane. Given the recalcitrance of methane conversion, catalysts are employed ubiquitously to accelerate reaction rates and increase both carbon yield and selectivity to desired products. Many catalytic approaches have been explored, including traditional supported heterogeneous catalysis, homogeneous catalyst routes, electro- and photo-catalysis, and bio-based approaches. Nevertheless, methane conversion remains as one of the grand challenges of catalysis. One recent development showing promise, however, is the emergence of single-site catalysis as a unifying aspect catalysts capable of C-H bond activation and methyl coupling, ranging from enzymatic catalysis to homogeneous catalysis, to metal-exchanged zeolite catalysis and to the recent high-temperature heterogeneous catalytic single-site Fe-on-silica approach . This session will focus on the nature of the active site in methane conversion to higher-value products and the current understanding around opportunities to modify and optimize the active site, both from the standpoint of turnover number and product selectivity.