Conversion of acetylene and methanol to aromatics

A method for forming aromatic compounds, comprising:

• dehydrogenating a feed comprising at least about 75 vol % ethane, under dehydrogenation conditions to form a dehydrogenation effluent containing at least about 25 vol % alkynes and wherein at least some of the alkynes comprise acetylene, the dehydrogenation conditions including a temperature of at least about 1000° C.;
• and
• converting at least a portion of the dehydrogenation effluent under effective conversion conditions with an aromatization catalyst to form a conversion effluent comprising a hydrocarbon product containing aromatic compounds, wherein a volume percentage of aromatic compounds in the hydrocarbon product are at least about 10 vol % greater than a volume percentage of aromatic compounds in the dehydrogenation effluent, and wherein a molar ratio of acetylene to methanol provided to the aromatization catalyst is 5:1 or less, wherein the converting comprises reacting methanol molecules with acetylene molecules to form methyl acetylene, and reacting an additional acetylene with the methyl acetylene to form para-xylene.