Doctoral Themes

Plasma-assisted catalytic dry reforming of biogas (DRB)

Supervisors

Carmen Bacariza, maria.rey@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

José Nuno Canongia Lopes, jnlopes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Nuno Pinhão, npinhao@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Registration Institution

Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa

Project description

Bioenergy has the goal of reaching 25-66% of future global primary energy mix in 2050. Thus, improvements in the existing technologies or the development of new bio-wastes valorisation alternatives for the synthesis of greener chemicals and fuels are required. Among the different alternatives, the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes leads to biogas formation, mainly composed by CH4 and CO2. Biogas is typically valorised based on CH4 burning for heat or power generation. However, the dry reforming of biogas (DRB; CH4 + CO2 ↔ 2CO + 2H2) constitutes an advantageous alternative, as renewable carbon valorisation is maximized from two greenhouse gases.

Reducing the energy requirements and ensuring catalysts cost-efficiency and activity at lower temperatures is crucial for DRB industrial implementation. In this context, plasma assisted catalytic DRB has been reported as an efficient strategy which still requires further research for reducing power dissipation, inhibiting carbon formation, understanding plasma-catalyst interactions, optimizing the reactor configuration, and underlying the mechanism. Thus, this PhD thesis intends the development of an optimized system (e.g., catalysts, pulsed supply type, operating conditions) for plasma assisted catalytic DRB, involving:

  • The synthesis and characterization of catalysts based on micro- and mesoporous materials;
  • The catalytic testing of the prepared catalysts for DBR, using thermal- and optimized DBD plasma-catalytic reactors;
  • The modelling of the plasma chemical kinetics;
  • The study, using reactive molecular dynamics and Operando FTIR (LCS-ENSICAEN internship), of the plasma-catalyst interaction.

References: Kapoor et al., Environ Sci Pollut Res 26 (2019) 11631-11661; Er-rbib et al., Chem. Eng. Trans. 29 (2012) 163–168; Khoja et al., Energy Conversion and Management 183 (2019) 529–560; S. Liu et al., ACS Catal 10 (2020) 2855–2871.

Keywords

CO2 valorisation; Biogas dry reforming; Heterogeneous catalysts; Plasma catalysis; Molecular dynamics

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