Combining oxidative coupling and reforming of methane

Ethylene separation by feed-splitting from light gases

“…Cryogenic distillation has been considered for separation, operating around À110 C and pressures of 35 bar. This implies a large temperature difference between oxidative coupling and separation [11,12]. Distillation columns to separate H 2 , CH 4 , C 2 H 4 and C 2 H 6 are the most expensive and intensive units in ethylene plants, because the distillation requires high energy consumption, increased refrigeration capacity and a large number of stages, all of which increase both the capital and production costs [14].…”

Model-Based Analysis and Integration of Synthetic Methane Production and Methane Oxidative Coupling

“…In 2016, ethylene was the most produced organic compound, with over 150 million tonnes synthesised. Ethylene production via the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) process has been studied and developed over the past 30 years (P. Graf, 2008).One of the most promising process integration is the complementary use of the carbon dioxide methane reforming (DRM) process and the OCM process through a novel reactor configuration: the dual membrane reactor proposed by Godini et al (2013). In this design, oxygen is diffused through a porous membrane to the OCM section, as it is passing through the centre of the reactor.…”

Integrated autothermal reactor concepts for oxidative coupling and reforming of methane

“…As a consequence of the process integration, a crucial factor for the feasibility of both reactor concepts remains the availability of (cheap) technology for separation of the hydrocarbons and synthesis gas from the product stream. Currently, the energy intensive cryogenic separation of ethylene and ethane from synthesis gas and/or methane is the technology of choice, although selective reactive separation of ethylene to produce ethylbenzene has been proposed (Graf, 2008). Finally, for both the developed integrated OCM/SRM processes, a major challenge still lies in the larger scale testing of the reactor concepts and further improvement of OCM, because on the larger scale concentration and temperature profiles may limit the overall performance, as was demonstrated experimentally in this work.…”

“…A process stream consisting of C 1 and C 2 components can be separated via a reaction which selectively consumes C 2 H 4 , e.g. via benzene alkylation as proposed by Graf (2008). It was experimentally demonstrated that C 2 H 4 can indeed be separated from the OCM reaction mixture with high selectivity via benzene alkylation over a ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst at 450 • C to ethylbenzene (a precursor for styrene/polystyrene).…”