Microwaves in Nonoxidative Conversion of Natural Gas to Value-Added Products

Microwaves were used in preparing materials from gaseous reactants, Silicon carbide films were prepared using microwave plasma under vacuum conditions as reported by Weinreich and Ribner. In recent decades, thanks to the development of different microwave reactor designs, microwave-assisted chemical reaction has gained significant attraction and microwaves have started playing a role in gas-solid heterogeneous catalysis to convert natural gas into value-added chemicals and carbon products, such as methane decomposition and methane-reforming reactions. This chapter gives an overview of latest available microwave technology applied in catalytic natural gas conversion. It addresses fundamental theory of microwave catalysis, including wave functions of electric and magnetic fields, mechanisms of microwave heating, dielectric property characterization and microwave reactor design and components. In addition, few microwave-assisted direct/indirect natural gas conversion examples and numerical modeling of microwave-material interaction are reviewed. The chapter also focuses on the single-mode flow-type microwave reactor, which can be applied in gas-solid heterogenous catalysis science.