Selective synthesis of acetylene from methane by microwave plasma reactions

Direct conversion of methane under nonoxidative conditions

“…For example, in pulsed corona discharges at atmospheric pressure, C 2 hydrocarbons (mainly C 2 H 2 ) were obtained with a high selectivity of around 70 to 90%, while high selectivity toward C 2 H 6 was attained in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor. In microwave plasmas, the product distribution shifted from C 2 H 6 to C 2 H 4 and finally to C 2 H 2 with an increase in power density [28][29][30][31]. By introducing a proper catalyst into the microwave plasma reactor, CH 4 could be converted to higher hydrocarbons at atmospheric pressure.…”

Methane conversion using a high‐frequency pulsed plasma: Discharge features

“…AC and DC corona discharges, dielectric-barrier discharge, arc plasma, and the combination of microwave plasma and catalysts have been reported to produce acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, methanol, and other liquid products (Wan, 1986;Mallinson et al, 1987;Bhatnagar and Mallinson, 1995;Liu et al, 1996;Thanyachotpaiboon et al, 1998;Onoe et al, 1997;Okumoto et al, 1998;Suib and Zerger, 1993;Marun et al, 1999;Eliasson et al, 2000;Yao et al, 2000d). Recently, methane reforming with CO, using plasmas, which may contribute to effective utilization of methane and reduction of greenhouse gas CO, emission, has been reported (Gesser et al, 1997;Bromberg et al, 1998;Larkin et al, 1998;Zhou et al, 1998;Huang et al, 2000;Yao et al, 2000b).…”

Effect of Coexistent Hydrogen on the Selective Production of Ethane by Dehydrogenative Methane Coupling through Dielectric-Barrier Discharge under Ordinary Pressure at an Ambient Temperature

“…As it has been reported previously, the methane conversion with a high energy supply by microwave-induced plasma in a reduced pressure affords ethyne in extremely high yield [1], and the presence of a sort of catalyst in the similar situations promotes further dehydrogenations and results in the formation of carbon nanotube [18,19]. Contrary to these, the low energy supply to methane molecule by DBD resulted in the product distributions to alkanes, ethane, and propane, with high rates of selectivity [16].…”

“…The dehydrogenative coupling could become one of the green chemistry processes generating no waste materials without use of catalysts. Our previous performances were the synthesis of acetylene from methane (reaction (1)) by the microwave plasma reaction [1] and ethylene from methane (reaction (2)) by the thermal diffusion column [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], both with the acceptable high selectivities of the main product, being the maximum acetylene selectivity of 97.4% with the methane conversion ( CH 4 ) of 92.7% and also the ethylene selectivity of 91.5% with the CH 4 of 9.4%, respectively, 2CH 4 → C 2 H 2 + 3H 2 (1)…”