CO2 conversion covers a wide range of possible application areas from fuels to bulk and commodity chemicals and even to specialty products with biological activity such as pharmaceuticals. In the present review, we discuss selected examples in these areas in a combined analysis of the state-of-the-art of synthetic methodologies and processes with their life cycle assessment. Thereby, we attempted to assess the potential to reduce the environmental footprint in these application fields relative to the current petrochemical value chain. This analysis and discussion differs significantly from a viewpoint on CO2 utilization as a measure for global CO2 mitigation. Whereas the latter focuses on reducing the end-of-pipe problem “CO2 emissions” from todays’ industries, the approach taken here tries to identify opportunities by exploiting a novel feedstock that avoids the utilization of fossil resource in transition toward more sustainable future production. Thus, the motivation to develop CO2-based chemistry does...

Sustainable Conversion of Carbon Dioxide: An Integrated Review of Catalysis and Life Cycle Assessment

Review on methanation – From fundamentals to current projects

Progress in biofuel production from gasification

CO2 hydrogenation to hydrocarbons is a promising way of making waste to wealth and energy storage, which also solves the environmental and energy issues caused by CO2 emissions Much efforts and research are aimed at the conversion of CO2 via hydrogenation to various value-added hydrocarbons, such as CH4, lower olefins, gasoline, or long-chain hydrocarbons catalyzed by different catalysts with various mechanisms This review provides an overview of advances in CO2 hydrogenation to hydrocarbons that have been achieved recently in terms of catalyst design, catalytic performance and reaction mechanism from both experiments and density functional theory calculations In addition, the factors influencing the performance of catalysts and the first C–C coupling mechanism through different routes are also revealed The fundamental factor for product selectivity is the surface H/C ratio adjusted by active metals, supports and promoters Furthermore, the technical and application challenges of CO2 conversion into useful fuels/chemicals are also summarized To meet these challenges, future research directions are proposed in this review

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A short review of recent advances in CO2 hydrogenation to hydrocarbons over heterogeneous catalysts

Methanation of coal-or biomass-derived carbon oxides for production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) is gaining considerable interest due to energy issues and the opportunity of reducing greenhouse gases by carbon dioxide conversion. The key component of the methanation process is the catalyst design. Ideally, the catalyst should show high activity at low temperatures (200-300 degrees C) and high stability at high temperatures (600-700 degrees C). In the past decades, various methanation catalysts have been investigated, among which transition metals including Ni, Fe, Co, Ru, Mo, etc. dispersed on metal oxide supports such as Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, ZrO2, CeO2 etc. have received great attention due to their relatively high catalytic activity and selectivity. Furthermore, over the past few years, great efforts have been made both in methanation catalysts development and reaction mechanism investigation. Here we provide a comprehensive review to these most advancements, covering the reaction thermodynamics, mechanism and kinetics, the effects of catalyst active components, supports, promoters and preparation methods, hoping to outline the pathways for the future methanation catalysts design and development for SNG production.

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Recent advances in methanation catalysts for the production of synthetic natural gas

Synthetic natural gas (SNG) can be obtained via methanation of synthesis gas (syngas). Many thermodynamic reaction details involved in this process are not yet fully understood. In this paper, a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of reactions occurring in the methanation of carbon oxides (CO and CO2) is conducted using the Gibbs free energy minimization method. The equilibrium constants of eight reactions involved in the methanation reactions were calculated at different temperatures. The effects of temperature, pressure, ratio of H-2/CO (and H-2/CO2), and the addition of other compounds (H2O, O-2, CH4, and C2H4) in the feed gas (syngas) on the conversion of CO and CO2, CH4 selectivity and yield, as well as carbon deposition, were carefully investigated. In addition, experimental data obtained on commercial Ni-based catalysts for CO methanation and three cases adopted from the literature were compared with the thermodynamic calculations. It is found that low temperature, high pressure, and a large H-2/CO (and H-2/CO2) ratio are favourable for the methanation reactions. Adding steam into the feed gas could alleviate the carbon deposition to a large extent. Trace amounts of O-2 in syngas is unfavourable for SNG generation although it can lower carbon deposition. Additional CH4 in the feed gas almost has no influence on the CO conversion and CH4 yield, but it leads to the increase of carbon formed. Introduction of a small amount of C2H4, a representative of hydrocarbons in syngas, results in low CH4 yield and serious carbon deposition although it does not affect CO conversion. CO is relatively easy to hydrogenated compared to CO2 at the same reaction conditions. The comparison of thermodynamic calculations with experimental results demonstrated that the Gibbs free energy minimization method is significantly effective for understanding the reactions occurring in methanation and helpful for the development of catalysts and processes for the production of SNG.

A thermodynamic analysis of methanation reactions of carbon oxides for the production of synthetic natural gas

CO methanation reaction over the Ni/Al2O3 catalysts for synthetic natural gas production was systematically investigated by tuning a number of parameters, including using different commercial Al2O3 supports and varying NiO and MgO loading, calcination temperature, space velocity, H2/CO ratio, reaction pressure, and time, respectively. The catalytic performance was greatly influenced by the above-mentioned parameters. Briefly, a large surface area of the Al2O3 support, a moderate interaction between Ni and the support Al2O3, a proper Ni content (20 wt %), and a relatively low calcination temperature (400 °C) promoted the formation of small NiO particles and reducible β-type NiO species, which led to high catalytic activities and strong resistance to the carbon deposition, while addition of a small amount of MgO (2 wt %) could improve the catalyst stability by reducing the carbon deposition; other optimized conditions that enhanced the catalytic performance included high reaction pressure (3.0 MPa), high H2...

Dacheng Hu

Papers

A thermodynamic analysis of methanation reactions of carbon oxides for the production of synthetic natural gas

Enhanced Investigation of CO Methanation over Ni/Al2O3 Catalysts for Synthetic Natural Gas Production