Ethane is separated from shale gas to minimize condensation in natural gas pipeline. As an effective way to utilize ethane, direct non-oxidative ethane dehydroaromatization has been studied for decades. Conventionally, high reaction temperature is required to activate the hydrocarbon molecules. In this study, aromatization reaction was studied in a variable frequency microwave reactor in the presence of metal promoted zeolite catalyst. The significance of microwave frequency, reaction temperature and residence time were investigated respectively. Using ethane as the feedstock, aromatic formation can be achieved at temperature lower than 400 <sup>o</sup>C. The objective of this study is to elucidate reaction mechanism in microwave-assist ethane dehydroaromatization. The study consists of synergistically integrating microwave reaction chemistry with novel heterogeneous catalysis that selectively activates hydrocarbon feed through microwave irradiation. The challenges in C-H bond activation is overcome by a combination of changing in reaction pathways, novel microwave reactor and catalysts. Specifically, the focus of the study is to ascertain reaction pathways and the catalytic function of catalyst that are sensitive to electromagnetic energy. One of the mechanisms by which the catalyst and reacting species can interact with the microwave field and provide energy to the reaction is by relaxation processes, such as dipolar or Debye processes, which involve the coupling of the radiation with dipoles in the solid catalyst. As shown in Figure 1, these dipoles can be defect sites (i.e. atomic vacancies) in the catalysts or dangling bonds on the surface of catalysts. From the standpoint of catalysis, dipoles on the surface can be reactant or products that would be susceptible to selective bond activation effects, which in turn can affect reaction rates.

Microwave catalytic conversion of ethane to higher value chemicals

256th National Meeting (2018)

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