A combined operando XAS-XRD study to elucidate the effect of H2O as a co-reactant in methane dehydroaromatization

The major bottleneck for large-scale application of methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) process is catalyst deactivation, which is caused by a.o. coke formation. Our previous results showed that adding H2O as co-reactant during the MDA reaction, results in a prolonged stability of the Mo/ZSM-5 catalyst. However, there is still a knowledge gap on the effects of H2O on the structure and performance of the active Mo species and the zeolite framework during the reaction. The proposed operando XAS/XRD characterization study will yield new information on both the evolution and stability of the Mo sites (with XAS), and structural changes within the zeolite framework (with XRD) upon co-feeding various H2O concentrations.