Conversion of Methane to Acetylene

Abstract

Methane is the absolute major component of natural gas, which is abundant and is becoming inexpensive as shale gas exploration technology booms. For economic reasons, in certain geographical locations, stranded natural gas should be converted to liquid platform chemicals, preferably at wellhead, transported and merged into the global supply chain of industrial chemical feedstocks. One critical chemical intermediate in methane conversion to liquid platform chemicals is acetylene. This chapter will introduce available commercial production technologies associated with methane conversion to acetylene as well as recent advances of research. The major production routes include BASF partial oxidative combustion and Hüls’ arc process. Also discussed in this chapter are the acetylene production technologies using coal and petroleum as feedstocks. Most of the academic research has been inspired by commercial production with a special focus on the Hüls arc process, because the setup could provide a high temperature and a short residence time, which are critical to acetylene synthesis. These studies involve corona discharge, pulsed discharge, and microwave plasma. Acetylene from pyrolysis of methane will be introduced at the end of this chapter.