Development of vanadium-phosphate catalysts for methanol production by selective oxidation of methane: Quarterly technical progress report 15, October 1-December 31, 1996

This document is the fifteenth quarterly technical progress report under Contract No. DE-AC22-92PC921 `Development of Vanadium- Phosphate Catalysts for Methanol Production by Selective Oxidation of Methane` and covers the period October-December, 1996. Vanadium phosphate, vanadyl pyrophosphate specifically, is used commercially to oxidize butane to maleic anhydride and is one of the few examples of an active and selective oxidation catalyst for alkanes. In this project we are examining this catalyst for the methane oxidation reaction. Initial process variable and kinetic studies indicated that vanadyl pyrophosphate is a reasonably active catalyst below 5000{degrees}C but produces CO as the primary product, no formaldehyde or methanol were observed. A number of approaches for modification of the phosphate catalyst to improve selectivity have been tried during this project. During this quarter we have obtained surface areas of catalysts prepared with modified surface acidity. The results confirm the enhanced activity of two of the modified preparations in methanol conversion (a test reaction for surface acid sites). In previous work we noted no improvement in methane oxidation selectivity for these catalysts. Surface areas, surface analysis by XPS, and bulk analysis by ICP-AA have been obtained for vanadyl pyrophosphate promoted by Cr, Cu, and Fe. These data indicate that roughly one tenth of the surface metal atoms are promoter. A similar analysis was obtained for the bulk. Preliminary examination of binding energies suggests a slightly more reduced surface for the Cr and Fe promoted catalysts which exhibit a significant selectivity to formaldehyde in methane oxidation. A more detailed kinetic model has also been developed to aid in comparing the promoted catalysts and is discussed. Plans for the coming months are outlined