Co-conversion Of CH₄ And CO₂ Over Zn/H-ZSM-5 Zeolite

In recent years, the greenhouse gases produced from human activity cause a global warming. Meanwhile, coal and oil reserves are gradually depleting while energy demand of the world is increasing. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant carbon resources of the world. Methane is the simplest hydride of carbon and the major constituent of natural gas. And they both are significant "greenhouse effect" gases. The conversion of CH4 and CO2 has important implications for resources and environment that are essential to human survival. Therefore, the utilization of CH4 and CO2 has great economic and social significance, which is one of the most important subjects for studies in the field of catalysis. On the other hand, as an important organic chemical raw material, acetic acid ranks first among the organic acids in the industrial output. The formation of acetic acid from CH4 and CO2 is an atom-economic but thermodynamically unfavorable process. If there is an effective way to form acetic acid from CH4 and CO2 under mild conditions, the cost and the energy consumption of the process would both decrease sharply. And greenhouse gases would be effectively used, hence, the pressure of resources and environment would be alleviated.In Chapterâ…¢, the zeolite Zn/H-ZSM-5 was synthesized via an impregnation method and further characterized by powder XRD, UV-vis, and solid-state NMR techniques. CH4 and CO2 were fed into a high-pressure reactor with 1:1 (mol%) over the zeolite. The reactants reacted at given temperature and time. The alkaline solution was used to collect the post-reacted gases and wash the working catalyst. Ion chromatography was then applied to identify the product distribution for CH4-CO2 co-conversion over Zn/H-ZSM-5 zeolite under different conditions (reaction temperature and heating duration). The best condition for yield and selectivity of the product was, therefore, proposed and discussed on the basis of experimental data obtained by ion chromatograph. At last, the conversion of CH4 and CO2 in a continuous flow system was tested.