The new challenge of partial oxidation of methane over Fe2O3/NaY and Fe3O4/NaY heterogeneous catalysts

Abstract As one of the most important gases that abundantly contribute to air pollution, methane becomes the most leading gas that challenges researchers to utilize it in more functional products such as methanol. In this study, the conversion process involved iron oxide species supported by sodium Y (NaY-Z) zeolite as the catalysts. This work highlighted the preparation of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 modified NaY zeolite to investigate their catalytic performance on partial oxidation of methane to methanol, with trace amount of oxygen (0.5% in N2), in a batch reactor. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, and BET. The structure of NaY zeolite and its modified catalysts were confirmed. The pristine NaY-Z shows the highest activity followed by Fe2O3/NaY-3.52 (3.52 wt% of Fe loading) with high selectivity to formaldehyde (80%). Very high selectivity (∼100%) towards methanol was observed in the reactions on Fe2O3/NaY-1.70 and Fe3O4/NaY-2.55 catalysts, although the total amount of product was decreased. It was noticeable that Fe3O4/NaY-3.22 is an active catalyst and has good selectivity to methanol (70%).