Hydrothermal treatment to improve oxidant efficiency for direct methane conversion to methanol

Abstract

Catalyst with single rhodium site was produced for selective and direct methane conversion to methanol. Existing catalyst used excess amount of $H_2O_2$ as an oxidant. This process was not economically feasible due to expensive cost of $H_2O_2$. To compensate this role, molecular $O_2$ was added to this reaction. $H_2O_2$ produce 2 OH radicals in reaction mechanism, which activate methane and make hydrogenated catalyst surface. Hydrothermal treatment was conducated to substitute this role. With catalyst after hydrotheraml treatment, 4 times higher amount of methanol was produced even only 1/8 amount of $H_2O_2$ was used. Also, single rhodium structure of catalyst was maintained after hydrothermal treatment. This process highly increased the efficiency of oxidant, which lead to higher economical efficiency.