Ethylene derivatives are found in food packaging, eyeglasses, cars, medical devices, lubricants, engine coolants and liquid crystal displays.
Ethylene production by steam cracking consumes large amounts of energy and uses oil and natural gas fractions such as naphtha and ethane.
The oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene is written below:[1][2] The reaction is exothermic (∆H = -280 kJ/mol) and occurs at high temperatures (750–950 ˚C).
The tetrahedral arrangement of strong C–H bonds (435 kJ/mol) offer no functional group, magnetic moments or polar distributions to undergo chemical attack.
This makes methane less reactive than nearly all of its conversion products, limiting efficient utilization of natural gas, the world's most abundant petrochemical resource.
[7] Nevertheless, some recent work have shown that the mechanism of the OCM could be initiated by an heterolytic cleavage of the C-H bond on magnesium oxide in the presence of O2 atmosphere.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, research activity in this area began to decline significantly, as evidenced by the decreasing number of patents filed and peer-reviewed publications.