Direct catalytic conversion of methane and light hydrocarbon gases. Final report, October 1, 1986--July 31, 1989

This project explored conversion of methane to useful products by two techniques that do not involve oxidative coupling. The first approach was direct catalytic dehydrocoupling of methane to give hydrocarbons and hydrogen. The second approach was oxidation of methane to methanol by using heterogenized versions of catalysts that were developed as homogeneous models of cytochrome-P450, an enzyme that actively hydroxylates hydrocarbons by using molecular oxygen. Two possibilities exist for dehydrocoupling of methane to higher hydrocarbons: The first, oxidative coupling to ethane/ethylene and water, is the subject of intense current interest. Nonoxidative coupling to higher hydrocarbons and hydrogen is endothermic, but in the absence of coke formation the theoretical thermodynamic equilibrium yield of hydrocarbons varies from 25% at 827{degrees}C to 65% at 1100{degrees}C (at atmospheric pressure). In this project we synthesized novel, highly dispersed metal catalysts by attaching metal clusters to inorganic supports. The second approach mimics microbial metabolism of methane to produce methanol. The methane mono-oxygenase enzyme responsible for the oxidation of methane to methanol in biological systems has exceptional selectivity and very good rates. Enzyme mimics are systems that function as the enzymes do but overcome the problems of slow rates and poor stability. Most of that effort has focused on mimics of cytochrome P-450, which is a very active selective oxidation enzyme and has a metalloporphyrin at the active site. The interest in nonporphyrin mimics coincides with the interest in methane mono-oxygenase, whose active site has been identified as a {mu}-oxo dinuclear iron complex.We employed mimics of cytochrome P-450, heterogenized to provide additional stability. The oxidation of methane with molecular oxygen was investigated in a fixed-bed, down-flow reactor with various anchored metal phthalocyanines (PC) and porphyrins (TPP) as the catalysts