Development of Novel Catalysts and Reactor Configurations for Methane Dry Reforming

The conversion of CO₂ into fuels and useful chemicals has been intensively pursued for renewable and green energy production. At the same time, CO₂ conversion into valuable products is the most efficient way to reduce CO₂ fingerprint. However, CO₂ is a highly stable molecule almost chemically inert, thus making difficult its conversion under normal conditions. Among the viable alternatives, dry reforming of methane, DRM (CH₄+ CO₂ ↔ 2H₂ + 2CO, ΔH°298 = 247.3 kJ/mol) is an efficient route to convert CO₂ into syngas, which can be used to produce liquid fuels and platform chemicals via Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis [1].

Unfortunately, DRM is inevitably accompanied by catalysts deactivation due to carbon deposition and metal sintering making necessary the development of highly active and robust heterogeneous catalysts to overcome the deactivation issues. Together with efficient catalysts, the overall performance can be enhanced by using non-conventional reactor configurations. In this work, we have designed new catalysts for methane dry reforming and we have analysed the optimum reaction conditions and conceptual design of reactor configurations aiming to maximise the catalysts’ stability and the syngas production while protecting the catalyst from coke deposition.