CHEMICAL ENGINEERINGTRANSACTIONS
VOL. 70, 2018
A publication of
The Italian Association
of Chemical Engineering
Online at www.aidic.it/cet
Guest Editors:Timothy G. Walmsley, Petar S.Varbanov, Rongxin Su, Jiří J.Klemeš
Copyright © 2018, AIDIC ServiziS.r.l.
ISBN978-88-95608-67-9; ISSN 2283-9216
Selective Polyoxide Catalysts for Synthesis of Ethylene from
Natural Gas
Svetlana A. Tungatarova
a,b,
*, Zauresh T. Zheksenbaeva
a,b
, Tolkyn S.
Baizhumanova
a
, Manapkhan Zhumabek
a
, Rabiga O. Sarsenova
a
, Gulnar
Kaumenova
a,b
, Bakytgul Massalimova
c
, Kamshat A. Shorayeva
c
a
D.V. Sokolsky Institute of Fuel, Catalysis and Electrochemistry, 142 Kunaev str., Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
b
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 al-Farabi ave., Almaty, 050040, Kazakhstan
c
Taraz State University named after M.Kh. Dulaty, 60 Tole bi str., Taraz, 080012, Kazakhstan
tungatarova58@mail.ru
Processing of the methane of natural gas into important hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing products and motor
fuels has become one of the major problems of chemistry. The degree of chemical processing of natural gas in
valuable products remains at a low level, and a significant portion of associated petroleum gas is burned in
flares in the fields. This leads to an irreparable loss of valuable raw materials and generates complex
environmental problems in the mining regions. Oxidative condensation of methane, steam and steam-oxygen
conversion, dry reforming and tri-reforming of methane attract a great attention in recent years. Catalysts based
on Si-W heteropoly compounds supported on carriers were investigated in oxidative condensation of methane
to ethylene. Determination of the effect of reaction parameters, the nature of catalyst on composition and
distribution of products were carried out. Supporting of Si-W heteropoly compounds on aluminosilicate does not
destroy the Keggin molecular structure and increases its thermal stability. Thus, effective catalysts for the
production of ethylene from methane have been developed.
1. Introduction
Natural gas is the most important alternative source for the production of valuable organic products.
Unfortunately, at present natural gas is mainly burned in "torches". This leads to an irreparable loss of valuable
raw materials and generates complex environmental problems. Natural gas can be considered as an alternative
source to obtain synthesis-gas by dry reforming (Siang et al., 2017) and partial oxidation of CH4 (Ricca et al.,
2016), olefins (Godini et al., 2014). Olefins can also be obtained from biogas (Penteado et al., 2017). Prospects
for the development of gas processing industry are associated with the creation and implementation of new
catalytic environmentally friendly technologies for the production of olefins, on the basis of which the production
of polymers, alcohols, and motor fuel is based. The oxidative coupling of CH4 (OCM) to C2H6 or C2H4 is a
reaction, which has received a lot of attention since the work of Keller and Bhasin (Aseem et al., 2018). However,
the yields of C2-hydrocarbons were small. The highest yield to date is 20 - 26 % (Arndt et al., 2012). Oxides of
alkaline earth metals, transition metals and rare earth oxides are the most studied catalysts. The results of long
studies have suggested that a high-performance catalyst should consist of a strongly basic oxide (for example,
Mg, La) with an additive that promotes both selectivity (for example, Cs, Na, Sr, Ba) and catalyst activity (for
example, Mn, W, Cl). Rare earth oxides are more active in a number of cases than basic oxides and allow the
production of C2-hydrocarbons at lower temperatures (Elkins et al., 2016). Catalysts containing Cs, Sr, Ba, Li,
Mn, Ca supported on MgO, La2O3, Al2O3, CaO were studied. In recent years, these catalysts have been
compared to Na2WO4-Mn/SiO2, which is considered the most promising catalyst for OCM (Sarsani et al., 2017).
Layered loading of catalysts with different catalytic properties in a fixed-bed reactor was investigated. It was
shown that a layered sample containing a more active Ag-Mn-Na2WO4/SiO2 catalyst, loaded before a more
selective Ce-Mn-Na2WO4/SiO2 sample, increased the overall selectivity and lowered the reaction temperature
compared to the Mn-Na2WO4/SiO2 catalyst (Liang et al., 2018). In recent years, new promising catalysts based
DOI: 10.3303/CET1870322
Please cite this article as: Tungatarova S.A., Zheksenbaeva Z.T., Baizhumanova T.S., Zhumabek M., Sarsenova R.O., Kaumenova G.,
Massalimova B., Shorayeva K.A., 2018, Selective polyoxide catalysts for synthesis of ethylene from natural gas , Chemical Engineering
Transactions, 70, 1927-1932 DOI:10.3303/CET1870322
1927