(97b) Acetylene From Methane Pyrolysis

Utilization of the natural gas or methane for production of olefins and other higher hydrocarbons is becoming attractive. This is majorly due to the abundance of natural gas over many parts of globe. This work describes the utilization of natural gas for production of acetylene, en route to ethylene production by hydrogenation.

A novel method for production of acetylene from methane or natural gas was implemented through an advanced methane pyrolysis process. The pyrolysis unit consisted of a burner, combustion chamber, mixer, pyrolysis reactor and a quench. The pilot scale pyrolysis unit was operated and the axial concentration profiles were determined experimentally using sampling probes. The performance indices for the methane pyrolysis unit like conversion of methane, the yield and selectivity of acetylene were determined as functions of different process parameters.

The integrated combustion-mixer-reactor was modeled and the simulated results were compared with typical experimental data. The collected data was used to determine the validity and applicability of the existing kinetic models of combustion to the methane pyrolysis process. The model predictions and the results matched satisfactorily. Adiabatic simulations were also carried out to identify the maximum possible acetylene yield obtainable in the pyrolysis unit. To best of our knowledge, our work is the first to compare experimental methane pyrolysis data in a pilot scale unit with the model predictions.