As greenhouse gas emissions concerns has led to significant investments in developing alternative and ecologically friendly fuels, converting CH4 directly to ethanol is of increasing interest. In this process, catalysts have to be used to enhance the CH4 conversion. It has been proposed that the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) is the rate determining step of this reaction. In this course, Sr-La2O3 nanofiber catalysts will be synthesized and characterized, that have shown to enhance the activity of the OCM reaction. My project focuses on the synthesis of Sr-La2O3 by incipient wetness impregnation. Another goal of this project is to automate the microreactor system in our lab. In order to do this, I will utilize the LabVIEW program that enable us to automate the reactions taking place in the microreactor as well as read and record data.
