Non-Catalytic Gas Phase Oxidation of Hydrocarbons

The predicted role of gas chemistry in meeting the global needs for fuels and petrochemicals makes it necessary to increase the efficiency of gas chemical processes and reduce their energy consumption. An important role in solving these problems can be played by non-catalytic autothermal oxidation processes that provide high energy efficiency with minimal demands on the composition of processed gases and their preliminary preparation. The paper presents the latest results of the development of two promising directions in natural gas processing. One, so called matrix conversion, belongs to the group of processes based on their preliminary conversion into syngas and demonstrates the possibility of a significant increase in specific capacity due to the transition to autothermal oxidative conversion. The other is based on the processes of direct conversion of hydrocarbon gases into chemical products – their partial oxidation and oxycracking with subsequent catalytic carbonylation of the resulting methanol and ethylene. In this case, additional advantages are achieved due to the possibility of direct processing of complex gas mixtures without their preliminary separation.