Patent ID: 8450546

Claim:
A method for the oxidative coupling of methane and toluene comprising: providing a hydrocarbon feedstream comprising methane and toluene; providing an oxidative catalyst within a reactor, the catalyst consisting essentially of (A) Mg element from 40 to 90 wt. % of the catalyst; (B) at least one element selected from the group consisting of Cs and Re, wherein the elements from (B) comprise from 0.01 to 40 wt. % of the catalyst; (C) at least one element selected from the group consisting of Na, Sr, and Ca, wherein the elements from (C) comprise from 0.01 to 40 wt. % of the catalyst; and (D) oxygen, wherein oxygen comprises from 10 to 45 wt. % of the catalyst; feeding the hydrocarbon feedstream and an oxygen source to the reactor; carrying out oxidative coupling of methane to toluene over the oxidative catalyst according to an oxidative coupling condition; and recovering product hydrocarbons comprising ethyl benzene and styrene from the reactor.