Oxygen-free Conversion of Methane in the Presence of Intermetallic Hydrogen Acceptor

C2+ hydrocarbons were formed by hydrogenation of the adspecies resulting from preliminary exposure of methane on Ni-Cu/SiO2 in static atmosphere in the presence of suitable hydrogen acceptors mixed with the catalyst. The results obtained with two different Ni-Zr alloys are compared. It is shown that NiZr was far more efficient than NiZr2, favouring cyclopentane in the products and giving rise to a better yield of conversion (>60%).