Partial oxidation of methane to syngas over Pt/Rh/MgO catalyst supported on FeCralloy woven fibre

Abstract

AbstractIntegrating a high‐pressure syngas step with Fischer‐Tropsch synthesis (FT) in a single vessel reduces investment and operating costs for Gas‐to‐Liquids technology (GtL). Methane catalytic partial oxidation (CPOX) to produce syngas for FT is an economic opportunity for micro‐refineries. Many metals and metal oxides selectively convert natural gas to CO and , but they also form coke, which must be removed intermittently, otherwise it deactivates the catalyst and can foul the reactor and process lines. Here, we prepared a 1 % mass fraction (0.01 g/g) Pt/Rh (Pt/Rh = 9) catalyst supported on MgO over FeCralloy woven fibre via solution combustion synthesis. At 900 °C, from 0.1–2 MPa, and with a 2:1 feed composition of to , the reaction consumed all the oxygen and we obtained a ratio of 2 (ideal for FT). At low pressure and a 0.1 s residence time the catalyst converted 90 % of the methane at 90 % CO selectivity. At 2 MPa, CO yield reached 50 % ( 80 % conversion and 57 % selectivity). Based on thermodynamic calculations, less than 5 % coke forms below . At high pressure and short residence time (0.1 s), the coke yield (presumed to be coke crystallites) was 24 %. Increasing the residence time to 0.3 s reduced the amount of coke by 33 % because it is metastable.