Methanol synthesis from methane through partial oxidation reaction using ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst from rice husk ash and coal fly ash

Methanol is a promising new alternative fuel that emits significantly less carbon dioxide than gasoline. Traditionally, methanol was produced through natural gas or coal gasification via syngas intermediate that has a high carbon footprint. In order to reduce its carbon footprint, alternative methanol production processes including direct production pathways through methane partial oxidation reactions have been intensively investigated in recent years. The purpose of this study is to synthesize ZSM-5 zeolite from coal fly ash and rice husk ash and measure its efficacy in catalyzing the direct conversion of methane to methanol via partial oxidation reaction. In this experiment, the zeolite was produced using the following molar ratio: 12 NaOH : 30SiO2 : 0.75 Al2O3 : 1800 H2O. XRD, BET, and SEM - EDX analysis were used to analyze the zeolite structure of ZSM-5, and the results revealed that ZSM-5 zeolite was successfully synthesized from coal fly ash and rice husk ash. The catalytic activity performance of the ZSM-5 zeolite was tested in a batch reactor at 423 K and an initial methane pressure of 4 bar with 1 gram of catalyst (zeolite) for 1 hour to carry out the methane to methanol conversion reaction. The catalytic activity of the synthesized ZSM-5 zeolite was compared to that of a commercial ZSM-5 zeolite for performance comparison. Additionally, a control reaction involving the same reaction was conducted without the use of a catalyst. This study found that synthesized ZSM-5 zeolite had a reaction yield of 10.04% while commercial ZSM-5 zeolite had a yield of 2.60%. These findings suggest that the ZSM-5 zeolite made from coal fly ash and rice husk ash has the potential to be used in the methane to methanol conversion process via partial oxidation reaction.