Catalytic partial oxidation (CPOX) of natural gas and renewable hydrocarbons/oxygenated hydrocarbons-A review

Catalytic partial oxidation (CPOX) is one of the most promising technologies for converting natural gas for fuel and chemicals synthesis. CPOX has been gaining increasing attention for conversion of natural gas to ideal syngas mixtures for fuel production. The urgency and importance of this endeavour has been increasingly recognized in the last few years due to the exploration of shale gas and flare gas. However, the information regarding the progress of industrial implementation of this technology is scarce. This review presents recent advances of CPOX techniques from bench to pilot scale and a comparison of its energy efficiency, carbon conversion efficiency, and operating costs with parallel technologies including steam reforming (SMR), autothermal reforming (ATR), and partial oxidation (POX). The potential applications and perspective of CPOX for long chain hydrocarbon and renewable hydrocarbon/oxygenated hydrocarbons conversion to new platform chemical and materials is also discussed.