Catalytic Conversion of Methane to Higher Hydrocarbons Over Molybdenum Based Bifunctional Metal Catalysts

Large resources of natural gas have made attention for the use alternate fuel option in the recent days. The oil derived from natural gas (NG) has free from emission of green house gases, led to increased interest in using natural gas as a raw material for obtaining alternative fuels. In the present study an effort has been made to convert non-oxidative conversion of methane to higher hydrocarbons. The reaction was studied over a three different catalyst viz 5%Mo/HZSM-5, 5%Mo/2%Zn-HZSM-5, 5%Mo/1%Pt-HZSM-5 (with Si/Al=35). The catalysts were prepared by incipient impregnation method and were characterized by BET surface area, pore volume, TGA, TPR, SEM, TEM, Chemisorption techniques. Catalytic tests were performed at three different temperatures 973K, 1023K and 1073K and at 1 atm. pressure. The maximum conversion was found to be 26% and aromatics selectivity was up to 80% observed for the catalyst 5%Mo/1%Pt-HZSM-5 at 750 oC.