Abstract The high availability of methane as the main component of natural gas and its proliferation as a powerful greenhouse gas call for the development of effective strategies for the transformation of methane into valuable chemicals and liquid fuel. All the mature routes for methane utilization were indirect ones and exclusively rely on syngas as an intermediate, while the direct routes for methane utilization with much less energy consumption was now receiving significant attention all over the world. Among all conceptually feasible routed of methane direct conversion, the selective oxidation of methane to methanol under mild conditions became the ideal choice, which provides a low-cost and energy-efficient route of methane utilization. Although significant progresses had been made in methane to methanol conversion (MTM), it was still extremely challenging to achieve the methane conversion and high methanol selectivity at the same time. In the review article, recent research progresses on MTM reaction, simulating the simple chemical reaction catalyzed by nature methane monooxygenase, were summarized. Representative noble metal and biomimetic non-noble metal zeolite catalysts were surveyed for the conversion of methane to methanol and its derivatives, targeting the industrial applications. The influences of reaction conditions, topology of zeolite catalysts, active metal centers and reaction mechanism on the catalytic reactivity were discussed in details. Finally, the reasons for the low methanol productivity and the difficulties of MTM reaction for industrial applications were illustrated and prospected.
WANG Yu,SUN Lanlan,WU Guangjun et al. Progress of Methane Selective Oxidation to Methanol[J]. Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, 2021, 37(6): 555-575.
WANG Yu,SUN Lanlan,WU Guangjun et al. Progress of Methane Selective Oxidation to Methanol[J]. Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, 2021, 37(6): 555-575.
