Combination of CH4 oxidative coupling reaction with C2H6 oxidative dehydrogenation by CO2 to C2H4

A new process has been suggested for converting natural gas to ethylene by combining oxidative coupling of methane with ethane dehydrogenation to provide an efficient method for the utilization of thermicity and CO2. From their thermodynamics, it is clear that the exothermicity from CH4 oxidative coupling reaction (DeltaH(800degreesC) = -174.3 kJ mol(-1)) can support C2H6 dehydrogenation by CO2 (DeltaH(800degreesC) = + 180.2 kJ mol(-1)). Meanwhile, the two reactions can be conducted under the same reaction conditions, such as the reaction temperature and reaction pressure as well as space velocity. In addition, the CO2 yielded from CH4 oxidative coupling reaction can be directly used for C2H6 dehydrogenation. Two kinds of catalyst are developed for this combined process with an achievement, from which C2H4 content in tail gas can reach attractively 16.4%, which can be used directly to produce ethylbenzene by the alkylation of benzene. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved