b'Methane upgrading usingDuring periods where renewable energy is abundant, nuclear heat can be dynamic energy supply diverted to upgrade methane to more valuable benzene and hydrogen.I ncreasing market penetration of intermittent renewable energy is forcing nuclear power plants to follow the energy demand and operate in load following mode. This is undesirable because nuclear power plants are designed to generate fixed, baseload power, and variable operation leads to thermo-mechanical stress. To avoid economic penalty, excess nuclear heat can be diverted to chemical manufacturing PROJECT NUMBER:processes to upgrade domestically abundant methane to valuable chemical 21A1050-062FP intermediates such as benzene. Such chemical processes must be designed for flexible, periodic operation and at reduced scale for tight process control. TOTAL APPROVED AMOUNT: $543,000 over 3 years Methane dehydroaromatization is a promising process for direct conversion of methane to benzene and hydrogen. However, one key challenge that precludes PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:industrial adoption is the rapid deactivation by deposition of coke on the state-of-Rebecca Fushimi the-art zeolite-supported molybdenum catalyst. An intensified process switching CO-INVESTIGATORS: scheme between endothermic benzene manufacture and exothermic nonoxidative Asif Rony, INL catalyst regeneration was developed to respond to the power dynamics imposed on Debtanu Maiti, INL nuclear power plants operating in integrated energy systems with renewable energy Jagoda Urban-Klaehn, INL sources. The deactivation/regeneration mechanism and kinetics of the catalyst were Rakesh Batchu, INL characterized using transient experiments in the Temporal Analysis of Products Yixiao Wang, INL reactor to optimize the periodic process. This research demonstrates the potential Zongtang Fang, INL for nuclear power plants to store excess energy production in the chemical bonds of high-value building block molecules. COLLABORATORS:CL Chemical CompanyLehigh UniversityUniversity of South FloridaMethane dehydroaromatization (MDA) converts abundant domestic natural gas to more valuable aromatics. Using a molybdenum catalyst and a zeolite support, the induction step must be carefully controlled to balance carbon accumulation and 76 loss of active sites during the reaction step to avoid irreversible catalyst deactivation.'