Improved Catalytic Partial Oxidation of Methane via Lattice Oxygen Modification on Supported Copper Oxide Catalyst System

Abstract

Thirteen kinds of supported copper oxide catalysts (Cu/MOx, MOx: La2O3, Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, CeO2, ZrO2, SnO2, SrCO3, BaCO3, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, WO3, and MoO3), which form Cu‐O‐M sites at the interface between CuOx and MOx or within the complex oxides (CuMOx), were tested for CH4 partial oxidation to find out catalytically active Cu‐O‐M combinations for production of CH3OH and HCHO. Among the thirteen Cu/MOx tested, Cu/WO3 exhibited the highest total yield of CH3OH and HCHO in a CH4‐O2‐H2O flow reaction at 400 °C. The structural and property analysis of Cu/WO3 revealed the formation of CuWO4, of which the lattice oxygen is active for the partial oxidation of CH4.