Catalytic Chemistry for Methane Dehydroaromatization (MDA) on a Bifunctional Mo/HZSM‑5 Catalyst in a Packed Bed

This paper presents an experimental and modeling study of methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) chemistry using a bifunctional 6 wt % Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst in an isothermal laboratory-scale packed-bed configuration. The reported measurements include methane conversion and product yields and selectivities as a function of temperature and flow rates (space velocity). The modeling is particularly concerned with developing and validating a microscopically reversible 54-step detailed reaction mechanism. The reaction mechanism is validated via direct comparison with the measured packed-bed performance. Although the operating conditions for the measurements are relatively limited, the detailed reaction mechanism is expected to have much wider predictive capability.