Methane pyrolysis catalyst
Catalytic methane pyrolysis (CMP) is an attractive route to producing hydrogen, because rather than generating CO2, the process produces solid carbon, which can be made in valuable forms that could offset the cost of hydrogen production. However, finding effective catalysts for CMP have been a hurdle for this line of study.
Now, researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL; Pittsburgh, Pa.; netl.doe.gov) have scaled up hydrogen production tests using a CMP catalyst developed and patented by NETL. This summer, NETL researchers scaled up hydrogen production tests by increasing the catalyst load from 500 g to 4.5 kg, while observing high conversion rates and continuous H2 production. The catalyst is also said to be lower cost than others reported in the literature, according to NETL.
“We achieved greater than 80% methane-to-hydrogen conversion for 30 hours in the test,” said NETL’s Ranjani Siriwardane. “And this was after using 10 times more catalyst than in the previous test, which shows that the material can be scaled up and work at the sub-pilot scale.” “We’ve solved the problems facing other catalysts, such as poor conversion, high-cost and separation issues,” Siriwardane adds.
Recycling water
In late June, Capture6 (Berkeley, Calif.; www.Capture6.org) broke ground for the Pure Water Antelope Valley (AV) Demonstration Facility that will house its new “Project Monarch” water-management and carbon-capture equipment. Capture6’s process uses the brine that is a byproduct of the existing water treatment process to recover additional freshwater and extract mineralized carbonates. This process will eliminate the discharge of brine, while recovering clean water and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Capture6 received a grant valued at over $8 million from the California Energy Commission under the Commercialization Industrial Decarbonization (CID) Program to help fund the project for the Palmdale Water District (PWD) facility. Additional funding was contributed by Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit investor. Project Monarch is one of four facilities announced by Capture6. The facility is expected to be operational by 2026 with the plan of an expanded full-scale facility to be operational by 2030. For details of the technology, see “This process makes freshwater from brine while capturing CO2,” Chem. Eng.February 2024, p. 8.
Propane to propylene catalyst
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (Lemont, Ill; www.anl.gov) and Ames National Laboratory (Ames, Iowa; www.ameslab.gov) have reported a faster, more energy-efficient way to manufacture propylene than the currently used process. A catalyst made from zirconium combined with silicon nitride was found to enhance the catalytic conversion of propane gas to propylene. The reaction was faster and catalytic conversion was achieved at a lower temperature than that typically required for traditional catalysts (842°F, compared to 1,022°F), the researchers say. The zirconium catalyst is also less expensive than precious metal catalysts like platinum. A paper on the study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Support for the research came from DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences, Catalysis Science program.
Edited by: Dorothy Lozowski