TRANSIENT KINETIC-STUDIES OF THE PARTIAL OXIDATION OF METHANE ON V2O5/SIO2

Transient kinetic studies were performed for the partial oxidation of methane to methanol on silica-supported vanadium oxide at 2 wt % vanadium oxide. The transient experiments were performed by removing a reactant abruptly from the reactor feed which normally consisted of CH4, N2O, O2, and H2O. For a number of cases, a small amount of methanol was added into the reactor feed to investigate whether methanol was oxidized on the catalyst. It was found that the formation of CH3OH, HCHO, and CO followed two different reaction pathways, parallel and sequential pathways, and required different forms of oxygen species. N2O was much more active than O2 for the activation of methane. O2 converted CH3OH to HCHO but not to CO while N2O converted CH3OH to CO but not to HCHO. Water vapor was found to block the formation of HCHO and CO but have no effect on the formation of CH3OH.