Methane Aromatization in a Membrane Reactor

Aromatic chemicals such as benzene and toluene have traditionally been derived from petroleum- However, shale gas offers a new, large and inexpensive feedstock- Therefore, a more efficient process is needed to convert the United States’ abundance of cheap, but often remotely located natural gas (primarily methane obtained from hydro-fractured shale formations) into more transportable and valuable liquid chemicals at the wellhead- We will develop a direct gas-to- liquids process at the wellhead to produce aromatic hydrocarbons (and hydrogen) in a circulating fluidized bed membrane reactor on a portable skid-mounted unit- We will adapt our HyRes process (originally developed to make hydrogen from residuum) by adding new high- temperature membranes that will extract hydrogen as it is generated by non-oxidative methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) to obtain supra-equilibrium conversion and high aromatic yields-