Direct conversion of methane with methanol toward higher hydrocarbon over Ga modified Mo/H-ZSM-5 catalyst

Methane conversion to higher hydrocarbons was studied over gallium modified Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst. It was demonstrated that the small amount of methanol addition in the methane stream improves the catalyst activity and selectivity toward aromatics hydrocarbon. The calcined catalysts were characterized using BET surface area, pore volume distribution, TPR, TPD, XRD, FTIR and SEM analysis. A maximum methane conversion (up to 15.5% with 88.7% aromatic selectivity) was achieved over 2%Ga-5%Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst. The catalytic activity over 5%Mo/HZSM-5 and 2%Ga-5%Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst revealed that 2%Ga-5%Mo/HZSM-5 leads to better methane conversion. This was attributed to aromatization property of gallium which facilitated the hydrogen transfer reaction with methane.