ABSTRACT
Natural gas (a fossil resource, based on a hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane) is found in many places around the world; however, its reserves are more geographically spread out across the world than oil reserves. The existing methane to methanol process is very efficient, with an overall carbon yield of ~70%. However, the most important disadvantage of this process is the high production cost. This fact hinders that natural gas displaces petroleum as the primary feedstock for the production of chemicals and fuels. The direct conversion of methane to oxygenates requires a co-reactant, typically an oxidant. Among different oxidants, air is the only economically feasible co-reactant for the large-scale chemical conversion of methane to products with high volume density, such as methanol or other bulk chemicals or fuels. In general, a proper strategy for developing efficient catalysts for the direct oxidation of methane to oxygenates should consider all structure-function correlations in order to increase stability, rate and selectivity.
