The Selective High-Yield Conversion of Methane Using Iodine-Catalyzed Methane Bromination

Methyl bromide is used as feed in a process that converts it to gasoline. It is prepared by the gas-phase reaction of CH4 with Br-2, a reaction that produces, besides the desired CH3Br, large amounts of CH2Br2. The latter cokes the catalyst used for gasoline production. The separation of CH2Br2 by distillation makes gasoline production too expensive. It is therefore important to increase the selectivity of the bromination reaction. We show that a small amount of 12 catalyzes the reaction CH2Br2 + CH4 > --> 2CH(3)Br, which leads to higher CH4 conversion and higher selectivity to CH3Br. These findings are promising for developing a low-cost integrated bromine-iodine based dual-halogen pathway to convert stranded natural gas into fuels and chemicals.