Dry Reforming of Methane: An Alternative Option for Carbon Capture

Dry Reforming of Methane: An alternative Option for Carbon Capture

Challiwala, Mohamed Sufiyan^1,2; Choudhury, H. Ahmed¹; Chatla, Anjaneyulu¹; Sengupta, Debalina², El-Halwagi, Mahmoud M²; Elbashir, Nimir^{1, 3*}

¹Chemical Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, PO Box 23874, Doha, Qatar

²Artie Mc Ferrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX, USA

³Petroleum Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, PO Box 23874, Doha, Qatar

*nelbashir@qatar.tamu.edu; Phone: (+974) 4423-0128

Catalyst deactivation due to carbon formation is the major challenge facing the utilization of carbon dioxide in reforming technology known as the Dry Reforming of Methane (DRM). The DRM technology also has additional limitations, such as the high endothermicity, and the low synthesis gas (syngas) ratio (H₂:CO<=1). Nevertheless, DRM has a major advantage over the current methane reforming technologies (i.e., Steam Reforming (SRM), Partial Oxidation (POX) and Autothermal Reforming (ATR)) since it converts the two main greenhouse gases (CO₂ and CH₄) to syngas, which is the precursor for ultra-clean fuels and value-added chemicals.  Although, in the context of reforming, solid carbon formation creates several complications, however, it could also serve as an important carbon capture material. This study provides a novel approach to design future DRM technology to produce not only syngas but as well solid carbon as reported in two disclosures ^[1,2]. The first invention report novel combination of two reactors instead of a single DRM reactor unit. The novel configuration benefits from the synergism between the three reforming technologies, while effectively providing a pathway for the production of solid carbon. This system results in enhancing the overall CO₂ conversion while producing high quality syngas ratio (H₂/CO ≥2). The second invention focused on providing an alternative pathway for the regeneration/reactivation of spent Ni-based catalyst using CO₂ to oxidize carbon deposited on the catalyst surface and produce CO instead of the conventional regeneration technique that require pure oxygen for oxidation and produce CO₂ followed by treatment by hydrogen to reduce the Ni-oxide back to the metal status. Besides the aforementioned advantages, these novel designs reduced the overall energy requirements of the DRM to ∼50% of the conventional technology while sequestering at least 65% CO₂ per pass.

1. Elbashir, N.O; Challiwala, M. S; El-Halwagi, Mahmoud M; Sengupta, Debalina. System And Method For Carbon And Syngas Production, 2018, WO 2018/187213 A

2. Elbashir, N.O; Challiwala, M. S; Choudhury, Hanif A; Regeneration And Activation Of Dry Reforming Of Methane Catalysts Using CO₂, ( PCT under review)