Natural Gas Conversion to Acetic Acid

With the discovery of vast quantities of natural gas available in the U.S. comes the opportunity to convert this gas, traditionally used directly as fuel, into more value added products. Ideally on-site conversion to higher value C2 liquids would alleviate gas transportation issues and maximize the utilization of otherwise waste gas. The proposed Phase I SBIR will demonstrate an advanced catalytic process to directly convert methane into acetic acid. In the Phase I program, bench top experiments will demonstrate the feasibility of the compact modular reactor to convert methane to acetic acid at moderate temperatures.In some remote locations, natural gas is flared causing global warming and wasted opportunities. The proposed approach will develop a modular compact reactor that can be used on- site to convert methane gas to acetic acid, a more easily transportable liquid. It also offers a simpler route to acetic acid synthesis than is currently practiced. The acetic acid market size was over USD 8.6 billion in 2016 and is estimated to witness a growth of 8.7% in the next 10 years.