Research progress in the direct nonoxidative dehydroaromatization of methane to aromatics

The direct, nonoxidative conversion of methane to aromatics and hydrogen is a challenging research topic in the field of C₁ chemistry due to the high carbon-atom utilization efficiency, zero CO₂ emissions and short process flow. In the present paper, the advance of methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) is reviewed based on the research works of our group and the pertinent literatures from 2013 to 2017. The reaction mechanism and coking formation for the MDA process, the catalyst modification and regeneration, the application of the membrane reactor, as well as the non-Mo-based catalyst system were considered, the future prospect was given for the MDA reaction.