Partial Oxidation of Methane

Abstract

Partial oxidation is a widely used process to convert hydrocarbons and alcohols to valuable oxygen-containing chemicals. Although methane is the simplest hydrocarbon which gives formaldehyde and methanol as partial oxidation products, the direct utilization of these reactions for the manufacture of formaldehyde and methanol has remained extremely difficult. During the 1940s, two processes for the conversion of methane to formaldehyde were developed in Germany [l]. The first process used NO as a catalyst, and a commercial plant using this process was known to have been in operation in Copsa Mica in Romania. The second process used a combination of ozone and barium peroxide as the catalyst. In the current industrial practice, however, methane is converted to HCHO through a three-step process involving high temperature steam reforming, low pressure methanol synthesis, and oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol to formaldehyde, as shown by

Unlike steam reforming, direct oxidation does not require energy input and a one-step conversion would be the best way to utilize the vast natural gas reserves associated with petroleum fields and deep ocean levels.