PARTIAL OXIDATION OF METHANE IN LIQUID PHASE

• Main Author: Ramadhani, Aliya
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/50832
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Methane is a compound that is abundantly available in nature and has many potential benefits, among which is for conversion into methanol, a compound having higher economic value and widely used in the chemical and energy industries. The state of the art commercial technology for producing methanol from methane consumes large amount of energy as well as cost and, consequently, dictating a large minimum economic capacity and therefore making it unsuitable for producing methanol from biomass-based methane (or biogas). A process that imitate the way methanotrophic bacteria, through their methane monooxygenase (MMO) enzymes, oxidize methane into methanol at ambient temperature and pressure may be far cheaper and energy-saving. To prevent further oxidation into formaldehyde, formic acid and CO2, the methanol formed must be protected through, for example, direct esterification with carboxylic acid. After the ester formed is separated, methanol could be recovered via hydrolysis of the methyl carboxylate. The objective of the present research is to obtain a biomimetic oxidation process that convert methane into methyl formate using a catalyst in the form of combined Mn and Co acetate/formate solutions that have been successfully used in catalyzing acetaldehyde oxidation into acetic acid. The research just completed the stage of catalyst preparation and testing when COVID-19 pandemic occured, making further experimentation in the laboratory impossible. The results so far achieved from experimental laboratory activities showed that combinations of Mn-Co salts could not be used as methane oxidation catalysts, for they could not activate molecular oxygen unless in the presence of an additional peroxide-forming reactant. Instead, a complex manganic formate compound K2{Mn(H2O)2[Mn3O(OOCH)9]2} has been successfully prepared and appeared potential to become an autoxidation catalyst. A desk study carried out during the period of no further experimental activities indicated that biomimetic oxidation catalysts strongly recommended to be tested in a subsequential research is the salts of copper-manganese (Cu-Mn) metal pair.