As the primary component of natural gas, methane is among the most abundant organic compounds on earth. Conversion of methane into syngas represents an important step for various fuel and chemical synthesis processes. At present, methane-derived syngas is produced through reforming in the presence of steam, oxygen, and/or carbon dioxide. Although reforming based methods, particularly steam-reforming, have been successfully utilized in commercial processes, the efficiencies of the state-of-the-art reforming processes are limited due to the high steam to methane ratio required by the reforming catalysts and/or the needs for energy intensive air separation operations. The current study investigates the feasibility of converting methane into syngas using a nano-scale core-shell redox catalyst. In a so-called �redox reforming scheme�, lattice oxygen contained in the redox catalyst is used to partially oxidize methane into syngas. In a subsequent regeneration step, the lattice oxygen consumed during the methane oxidation step is replenished with air.A number of redox catalysts composed of a primary metal oxide and mixed ionic-electronic conductor (MIEC) assembled as sub-micron composite or core-shell nano-particles are synthesized and characterized. Experimental results indicate that the newly developed redox catalysts are significantly more reactive than conventional oxygen carriers. They are also found to possess excellent stability through multiple redox cycles. These redox catalysts exhibit good potential in terms of resistance towards carbon formation and selectivity towards syngas products.

Core-shell redox catalyst for partial oxidation of methane

247th National Meeting (2014)

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