Millisecond Contact Time Reactors for Oxidative Coupling of Methane

70655 Large amounts of natural gas are located in fields that are too far from markets to be economically viable. If the natural gas from these fields could be converted to a liquid, it could be transported to markets using existing oil pipelines or ships. This project will demonstrate a compact device for converting methane into ethane, a critical first step in the gas-to-liquids process. This new approach, using chemical reactors capable of very fast heating and cooling rates, will improve the efficiency of the gas-to-liquids process and reduce the cost of the conversion reactors. A chemical and kinetic model of the methane-to-ethane conversion reactor will be created in Phase I. The model will be used to design a short-contact-time reactor and associated heat exchangers. Bench-scale reactors and heat exchangers will be built and tested to demonstrate feasibility. A complete methane-to-ethane system, to be built in Phase II, will be designed. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: A reactor capable of converting natural gas to chemicals that are liquid at room temperature should enable remote gas wells to economically bring their resource to market. The reactor also would have applications in refineries and chemical process plants, where it would reduce the cost and size of chemical reactors.