Oxidación catalítica selectiva para la conversión de metano a metanol: Una revisión

The oxidation of methane to methanol using a direct, economical and low energy cost is an objective pursued by the industry since its inception. Methane is the main component of natural gas, while methanol is both fuel and raw material in the chemical industry. This review article presents the results of work done to achieve this process, identifying the most relevant aspects involved. Low values of methane conversion and selectivity to methanol were found mainly due to two factors: the first is the difficulty of activating methane and the second, being able to control the process to avoid sequential oxidation reactions that generate other products. To increase the performance of the process is necessary to optimize the synthesis conditions of the materials including temperature, time and loads of the active component, which will influence the physical and chemical behavior of the catalyst. It is also necessary to control the variables of the catalytic oxidation process, such as the type of reactor material, feed flows, the residence times of the gases inside the reactor, and thus avoid competitive reactions that decrease the selectivity to the alcohol.