Exploring Catalytic Potentials for Methane Oxidation and Conversion
A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Catalysis".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 14 April 2026 | Viewed by 30
Special Issue Editor
Interests: novel catalytic materials for environmental processes and alternative energy carriers
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Methane, as the major component of fossil fuels, such as natural gas, is a resource with high potential as it is readily usable as an energy resource and cleaner than petroleum and coal but also offers exciting opportunities as a platform molecule. Besides natural gas, methane is also a byproduct of chemical processing and oil refining, while biogas is also a widely available carbon feedstock. For these reasons, there has been lots of and continuously increasing scientific interest in exploring methane conversion to higher-value fuels and chemicals for many years. Rather recently, it was discovered that catalytic methane pyrolysis offers an additional outstanding hydrogen production approach, as it can contribute to the decarbonization process, since the only coproducts besides hydrogen include valuable carbon structures and no greenhouse emissions. Last but not least, methane (CH4) utilization as one of the cleanest fossil fuel resources has significantly increased its atmospheric concentration, while CH4 as a greenhouse gas is becoming a major environmental threat, as it is at least 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2), demanding methods for its abatement.
We are pleased to invite you to submit your recent research to this Special Issue, entitled “Exploring Catalytic Potentials for Methane Oxidation and Conversion”.
This Special Issue aims to collate some of the most recent and forward-looking concepts related to all aspects of catalytic processes and materials, focusing on catalytic conversion of stable methane molecules into more valuable products, including fuels and chemicals and higher-value materials like olefins, methanol, aromatics, hydrogen, and carbon nanomaterials. Catalytic oxidation of methane to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is also a field of high research interest. Invited research efforts may focus on design and synthesis, characterization, efficiency, and deactivation of novel materials, as well as new pioneering concepts of catalytic processes, reaction kinetics, and modeling/simulation of materials and reactions.
We aim to collate at least 10 articles; this Special Issue may be printed in book form if this number is reached.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome to be submitted. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM), converting methane into ethylene, ethane, and other C2 hydrocarbons;
- Direct non-oxidative methane conversion (DNMC), converting methane into C2 hydrocarbons and aromatics without oxygen;
- Dry reforming of methane reacting with carbon dioxide to produce syngas (H2 and CO);
- Catalytic methane cracking/pyrolysis to produce CO2-free hydrogen and carbon nanomaterials;
- Catalytic methane combustion/oxidation of unburned methane in the exhaust of CH4-powered facilities.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Eleni Iliopoulou
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- methane conversion
- reforming
- coupling
- pyrolysis
- combustion
- hydrocarbons
- chemicals
- hydrogen
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