Conversion of methane to liquid hydrocarbons

The major emphasis of this project is the development of new catalyst materials which facilitate reactions that convert methane to liquid fuels. Reactions of interest include partial oxidation (forming methanol and formaldehyde) or oxidative coupling (forming ethane and ethylene) of methane using oxygen. Our efforts have focused both on describing the gas phase reactions of methane and oxygen that lead to methane oxidation and on development of new catalysts that select and accelerate the partial oxidation or coupling reactions. We have employed a chemical kinetic model (HCT: Hydrodynamics, Chemical kinetics, and Transport) that was developed at this Laboratory to describe homogeneous gas phase reactions. In addition, we have focused on the synthesis and reactions of new catalyst materials that would serve as the basis for methane conversion processes. The catalysts typically consist of an inorganic oxide matrix such as SiO/sub 2/ in which early transition metal and lanthanide ions are incorporated into the oxide coordination environment of the matrix. Characterization studies have been used to elucidate both the bulk properties of the catalysts as well as to determine details of the metal ion coordination environment. Reactor studies testing the foregoing catalysts for methane partial oxidation reactions are in progress andmore » the results will be correlated with both the characterization data and with chemical kinetic modelling of the thermal reactions of methane and oxygen. 18 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.« less