Resumen de A study on the direct conversion of methane to methanol

Morteza Sohrabi, Leila Vafajoo

• The selective oxidation of methane to methanol has been investigated in a packed bed reactor applying V205/SiO2 as the reaction catalyst. The effects of certain pertinent parameters of the system such as temperature, pressure and gas hourly space velocity (GHS V) on the conversion of methane and selectivity of the products have been investigated. It has been observed that by increasing the conversion of methane, the selectivity of both CO and formaldehyde is enhanced, while, that of methanol and CO2 is reduced. This could be due to the formation of certain by products such as formaldehyde as the result of further oxidation of methanol. Temperature was found to have the highest effect on the rate of reaction. A simple kinetic model has been devised for this process and the kinetic parameters have been determined as functions of temperature. The data predicted from the model have been correlated with those determined experimentally. The mean absolute deviation between the two sets of data was ca 7%.