(175a) 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)