CH4/H2 Ratio Effect on Methane Pyrolysis on Resistive Molybdenum Catalyst

The aim of this study is to examine the methane conversion into C2 hydrocarbons at resistive metal catalyst – electrically heated molybdenum plate - and to determine the effect of H2 content in the reaction gas mixture on the process characteristics. For hydrogen-free pyrolysis the maximum methane conversion reaches 60% at temperature plate of 1300 °C and the product selectivity has clearly defined maxima: for ethane it is at a temperature of 1050 °C (6%), for ethylene it is at a temperature of 1150 °C (10%) and for acetylene it is in the temperature range of 1250-1300 °C (28%). With further temperature increase the selectivity for acetylene drops significantly due to intensive decomposition of methane into carbon and hydrogen. The hydrogen addition into the reaction mixture positively effects the selectivity of unsaturated hydrocarbon C2 (ethylene and acetylene) and negatively effects on the selectivity for conversion of ethane and methane.