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A novel quartz reactor has been developed for heterogeneously catalysed reactions at high pressures and temperatures.

In the production of higher hydrocarbons, combining oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) with hydrogenation of the formed carbon oxides in a separate reactor provides an alternative to the currently applied methane conversion to syngas followed by Fischer‐Tropsch synthesis. The effects of CH4:O2 feed ratio in the OCM reactor and partial pressures of H2 or/and H2O in the hydrogenation reactor were analyzed to maximize production of C2+ hydrocarbons and reduce COx formation. The highest C2+ yield was achieved with low CH4:O2 feed ratio for OCM and removal of the formed water before entering the hydrogenation reactor.

Ni-catalyzed methanation has been discovered more than 100 years ago. Since then, many applications based on syngas -from coal or biomass -for the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) have been established. Nevertheless, methanation still bears great potential for optimization. Especially for decentralized, biomass-based applications, decreased methanation temperatures and pressures are expected to lower the costs of the overall process. Consequently, it is necessary to obtain a catalyst that is highly active under such reduced reaction conditions. This objective was successfully reached by a systematic variation of reduction temperature, pressure, and hydrogen concentration under the aspects of the design of experiment within the catalyst activation process.