Effective conversion of methane oxidation by a new copper
zeolite
(July 1, 2015) A new
bio-inspired zeolite catalyst, developed by an international team with
researchers from Technische Universität München (TUM), Eindhoven University of
Technology and University of Amsterdam, might pave the way to small scale
'gas-to-liquid' technologies converting natural gas to fuels and starting
materials for the chemical industry. Investigating the mechanism of the
selective oxidation of methane to methanol they identified a copper-oxo-cluster
as the active center inside the zeolite micropores.
In an era of depleting mineral oil resources natural gas is
becoming ever more relevant, even though the gas is difficult to transport and
not easily integrated in the existing industrial infrastructure. One of the
solutions for this is to apply 'gas-to-liquid' technologies. These convert
methane, the principal component of natural gas, to so-called synthesis gas
from which subsequently methanol and hydrocarbons are produced. These liquids
are then shipped to chemical plants or fuel companies all over the world.
This approach, however, today is only feasible at very large
scales. Currently there is no 'gas-to-liquid' chemistry available for the
economical processing of methane from smaller sources at remote locations. This
has spawned many research efforts regarding the chemistry of methane
conversion.