Development of ceramic membranes for conversion of methane into syngas.

The abundantly available natural gas (mostly methane) discovered in remote areas has stimulated considerable research on upgrading this gas to high-value-added clean-burning fuels such as dimethyl ether and alcohols and to pollution-fighting fuel additives. Of the two routes to convert methane to valuable products, direct and indirect, the indirect route involving partial oxidation of methane to syngas (a mixture of CO and H{sub 2}) is preferred. Syngas is used as feedstock to produce a variety of petrochemicals and transportation fuels. A mixed-conducting dense ceramic membrane was developed from Sr-Fe-Co oxide. Extruded and sintered tubes of SrFeCoO{sub 0.5}O{sub x} have been evaluated in a reactor operating at {approx}850 C for conversion of methane into syngas in the presence of a reforming catalyst. Some of the reactor tubes have been run for more than 1000 h, and methane conversion efficiencies of {approx}98% and CO selectivities of >96% were observed