Modeling of Catalytic Coupling of Methane

Conference · Sun Apr 14 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5688510

Hair, Lucy M. ^[1]; Pitz, William J. ^[1]; Droege, Michael W. ^[1]; Westbrook, Charles K. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Catalytic oxidative coupling to ethane or ethylene is an appealing, direct route to utilization of otherwise low value natural gas located in remote sites. Researchers have focused on oxidative coupling of methane for about 15 years, using metal oxide catalysts to facilitate the reaction. Despite intensive efforts, the best yields to C2 hydrocarbons have been in the 20 to 30% range, generally accomplished with catalysts which include an alkali metal on an alkali earth oxide, e.g., Li/MgO. In an attempt to understand and overcome the source of this limitation, more fundamental catalyst studies and modeling have been undertaken. Much of the recent work in oxidative coupling has explicitly recognized the fact that under most conditions, thermally-induced reactions account for a large fraction of products. In previous work, the authors employed a chemical kinetic model (HCT), developed at this Laboratory, to describe the overall homogeneous gas phase reactions of methane and oxygen. The HCT model can be used to describe reaction pathways and determine products for a wide variety of reactor types and conditions. Its application successfully predicted methane conversions and product distributions found experimentally for a reactor containing no catalyst. In this work, they expand the HCT model to include proposed catalytic reaction schemes. The purpose is to predict limits in C2 yield, describe product trends as a function of generalized catalyst behavior and use these results as a guide to catalyst design.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5688510
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--107053; CONF-910402--14; ON: DE91011914
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
ALKALI METALS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKANES
ALKENES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CATALYSIS
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CATALYTIC REFORMING
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL ACTIVATION
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUATIONS
ETHANE
ETHYLENE
FLUIDS
FORECASTING
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HYDROCARBONS
KINETIC EQUATIONS
KINETICS
LITHIUM
MAGNESIUM COMPOUNDS
MAGNESIUM OXIDES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
METHANE
NATURAL GAS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REACTION INTERMEDIATES
REACTION KINETICS
REFORMER PROCESSES
SYNTHESIS
TIME DEPENDENCE
YIELDS