(370c) Catalytic Wall Reactor for Non-Oxidative Methane Conversion

Methane, if converted to higher hydrocarbons, promises a great future as the substituent for liquid petroleum in petrochemical and fine chemical industries. Methane conversion methods such as oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and non-oxidative methane aromatization (DMA) reactions have attracted much attention since they directly convert methane into useful hydrocarbons including C₂ (ethylene and ethane) and benzene. In the OCM process, the more reactive nature of C₂ products than methane leads to the sequential oxidation of C₂ to thermodynamically favored CO_x (CO or CO₂). Similarly, the DMA process is challenged by the low methane equilibrium conversion and rapid catalyst deactivation. In this talk, we will highlight our recent work on development of catalytic wall reactor for non-oxidative methane conversion into C2 , aromatics and hydrogen products. The reaction temperature and gas flow rate were tested as variables to tailor methane conversion and product selectivity. The energy and economic analyses were conducted on the developed reactor systems to evaluate their practical application feasibility.