Methane Decomposition for Hydrogen Production over Biomass Ash Derived Ceria Promoted Cobalt Catalyst /

Abstract

The biomass fly ash (BFA) was studied as catalyst support material for thermo-catalytic decomposition of methane, in order to produce COx free hydrogen gas and solid carbon nano-materials as by-product. Cobalt based, CeO2 promoted, BFA supported catalyst were synthesized via impregnation method and was tested in fixed bed reactor for hydrogen production via thermo-catalytic decomposition of methane. The material characterization techniques such as X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and Fourier transformed infrared were used to evaluate the catalyst's physicochemical properties. The pure crystalline micro-flake BFA was modified with synthesized CeO2 nanowires, and the resulted nano-composite catalyst were thermally stable up to 900 °C. The catalyst stability makes it ideal catalyst for methane thermal catalytic decomposition. The catalyst, activity was assessed at 850 °C in order to determine H2 yield and CH4 conversion. In catalyst screening experiments, the obtained results demonstrated that support and promoter have a significant impact on CH4 conversion and H2 yield. Using 5% Co/CeO2-BFA as the catalyst, a maximum conversion of 71 percent for CH4 with 44.9 percent H2 yield was recorded for 34 hours on stream activity. While BFA and Co-BFA as catalysts converted 36% and 47% of CH4, respectively, indicating that the inclusion of a promoter increases both CH4 conversion and H2 yield. Compared to conventional catalyst support, using waste-sourced catalyst support for CH4 decomposition is a greener and more cost-effective option since it reduces the expenses and time required to prepare it.