Research Information System
DGMK (German Society for Petroleum and Coal Science and Technology) International Conference, “Catalysis-Innovative Applications in Petrochemistry and Refining”, Dresden, Germany, 4 - 06 October 2011, pp.173-180
Methane is the major component of natural gas with known resources rivaling those of crude
oil. Therefore, a direct conversion of CH4 into value added products is of strong interest for
the chemical industry. One suitable reaction is the oxidative coupling of methane, which has
received great attention since the first publications. Despite the intensive research, this
process is not applied yet due to a lack of active and stable catalysts. A promising candidate
is the Mn-Na2WO4/SiO2 catalyst, which is known for its high selectivity and its remarkable
stability. Although there are some suggestions on the role of the different components, the
support material and the phase of the support material, reliable facts are rare for this catalyst.
For this reason we carried out a wide-range variation of the support material (e.g. ZrO2,
Fe2O3, TiO2, Al2O3, MgO, etc.) to reveal its effect to the activity and the stability. The
prepared catalysts were characterized by BET surface area and X-ray diffraction analysis
and the OCM was performed in a packed-bed reactor with respect to long term stability.
We found that the catalyst is active in the OCM even without SiO2 as support material,
questioning the current suggestions for the active center.