Two University at Buffalo-led studies show promise for dry reforming of methane, an industrial process that could slow the pace of climate change
BUFFALO, NY – A byproduct of landfill, ranching, coal mining and other human activities, methane emissions are one of the main drivers of climate change.
However, for decades scientists have struggled to develop economical ways to use methane, which is the main component of natural gas, without also producing carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Among the possible solutions is dry reforming, a process that has the potential to convert both methane and carbon dioxide into chemical feedstocks, which are raw materials that can be used to make or process other products.
However, for dry reforming to be commercially viable, new and improved catalysts are needed.
In two University at Buffalo-led studies published in June, one in Chem Catalysis and the other in Angewandte Chemie, researchers report a new production method to create nickel-based catalysts that can overcome long-standing challenges.
“To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, to achieve carbon neutrality, we need to implement many changes both in power generation and in the production of chemical raw materials,” says the studies’ lead author Mark Swihart, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department. of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the UB.
Shuo Liu, a PhD candidate in Swihart’s lab, is the studies’ first author.
UB-affiliated co-authors include Satyarit Rao, Mihir Shah, Jilun Wei, Kaiwen Chen, and Zhengxi Xuan; as well as Eleni A. Kyriakidou, PhD, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at UB, and Junjie Chen, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University who earned her doctorate in Kyriakidou’s lab.
Other co-authors include Jeffery J. Urban, PhD, director of the Inorganic Nanostructures Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Molecular Foundry, and Chaochao Dun, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Urban’s lab.
Swihart explains that dry reforming of methane is not commercially viable using existing nickel-based catalysts, which stop working because their catalytically active particles become covered with carbon deposits (coking) or combine into larger, less active particles (sintering). The most promising catalysts also require complex production procedures.
To solve this problem, the research team developed a one-step aerosol process to make low-cost, high-performance catalysts. The process is based on a unique flame reactor developed in Swihart’s laboratory.
The team used the reactor to create small spherical particles called nanoshells that resist both coking and sintering.
In the Chem Catalysis study, the team reported that over 500 hours, the catalysts remained effective, converting 98% of the methane into syngas, or syngas, which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide which can then be used to produce a variety of chemicals.
In a second study, the team used the reactor to produce a new mesoporous silica material that has a surface area exceeding 1,000 square meters per gram. The team also created a method to deposit nickel or other nanoparticles inside the mesoporous silica, a process known as in situ deposition.
As reported in Angewandte Chemie, the mesoporous silica catalyst converted 97% of the methane over 200 hours.
This advance, Swihart says, provides a path not only to improved catalysts for dry reforming of methane, but also to many other environmentally and economically beneficial reactions.