Improved light olefin yield from methyl bromide coupling over modified SAPO-34 molecular sieves.

As an alternative to the partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas followed by methanol synthesis and the subsequent generation of olefins, we have studied the production of light olefins (ethylene and propylene) from the reaction of methyl bromide over various modified microporous silico-aluminophosphate molecular-sieve catalysts with an emphasis on SAPO-34. Some comparisons of methyl halides and methanol as reaction intermediates in their conversion to olefins are presented. Increasing the ratio of Si/Al and incorporation of Co into the catalyst framework improved the methyl bromide yield of light olefins over that obtained using standard SAPO-34.

Alkane bromination revisited: "reproportionation" in gas-phase methane bromination leads to higher selectivity for CH3Br at moderate temperatures.

The reaction of methane and bromine is a mildly exothermic and exergonic example of free radical alkane activation. We show here that the reaction of methane and bromine (CH4:Br2 > or = 1) may yield either a kinetically or a thermodynamically determined bromomethane product distribution and proceeds in two main phases between 450 and 550 degrees C under ambient pressure on the laboratory time scale. This is in contrast to the highly exothermic methane fluorination or chlorination reactions, which give kinetic product distributions, and to the endergonic iodination of methane, which yields an equilibrium distribution of iodomethanes.