E-Mail IMAGE: Mole fraction along the reaction time (s) calculated by the reactor simulation. The inlet gas consisted of CH4, O2, and He (as inert gas). The total pressure was set to... view more Credit: Atsushi Ishikawa Japanese researchers have developed a simulation method to theoretically estimate the performance of heterogeneous catalyst by combining first-principles calculation (1) and kinetic calculation techniques. Up to now, simulation studies mainly focused on a single or limited number of reaction pathways, and it was difficult to estimate the efficiency of a catalytic reaction without experimental information. Atsushi Ishikawa, Senior Researcher, Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), performed computation of reaction kinetic information from first-principles calculations based on quantum mechanics, and developed methods and programs to carry out kinetic simulations without using experimental kinetic results. Then he applied the findings to the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction, which is an important process in the use of natural gas. He could successfully predict the yield of the products, such as ethane, without experimental information on the reaction kinetics. He also predicted changes in yield depending on the temperature and partial pressure, and the results reproduced faithfully the existing experimental results.