Dehydroaromatization of methane over noble metal loaded Mo/H-ZSM-5 zeolite catalysts

Dehydroaromatization of methane (MDA) reaction was investigated over platinum modified Mo/H-ZSM-5 catalysts which were pre-carbided at 750 °C. The influence of platinum on the catalytic performance and product selectivity of Mo/H-ZSM-5 catalysts for the MDA reaction at 700 °C were studied. The presence of platinum led to a slight decrease in methane conversion from 7.5 to 4.2%. Aromatic selectivities above 90% were obtained with catalysts containing low platinum loadings (0.5 and 1.0 wt.%), with benzene being the most prominent product. A decrease in coke selectivity and coke deposits was noted with the platinum modified Mo/H-ZSM-5 zeolite catalysts. A comparative study was performed to compare platinum, palladium and ruthenium promoted Mo/H-ZSM-5 zeolite catalysts with un-promoted Mo/H-ZSM-5. The ruthenium promoted catalyst proved to be superior in catalytic performance, with a higher methane conversion obtained than that found for platinum promoted and palladium promoted Mo/H-ZSM-5 catalysts. Benzene selectivity of about 60% was obtained for ruthenium and palladium promoted Mo/H- ZSM-5 catalysts and the total aromatic selectivity was maintained at 90%. TGA results showed a total reduction of 50% by weight of carbon deposited on the promoted Mo/H-ZSM-5 catalyst.

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