THE CATALYTIC OXIDATIVE COUPLING OF METHANE .1. COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE DATA FROM VARIOUS TYPES OF REACTOR

The methane oxidative coupling performance of a fixed-bed reactor was successfully translated to a bubbling fluidised-bed reactor and this reaction mode was superior to spouted-bed, inclined and mechanically-agitated fluidised-bed units. Also, a two-stage bubbling fluidised-bed reactor with inter-stage addition of oxygen had the same performance as the single-stage unit, for the same total oxygen input, over a wide range of operating conditions. Overall the bubbling fluidised-bed is preferred, catalytic reactions dominate over non-catalytic gas phase reactions in determining the reactor performance, the gas phase exhibited plug-flow behaviour and the performance was independent of the gas phase oxygen partial pressure for a given oxygen input. The best hydrocarbon yield achieved in this study was 19.4%.