Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TITAN (Direct biogas conversion to green H2 and carbon materials by scalable microwave heaTed catalytIc reacTor for soil Amendment and silicon carbide production)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-02-29
TITAN develops an innovative MicroWave (MW) catalytic technology for the direct conversion of biogas (a mixture of methane and CO2 resulting from the fermentation of biomass waste) into valuable solid carbon materials and a hydrogen-rich stream. TITAN addresses the valorisation of bio-feedstock to power, chemicals and fuels.
The pyrolysis of biogas is considered as a negative carbon-emission technology, since the carbon source is biomass and the carbon produced is captured in solid form.
Titan major innovations are expected for:
(1) the energy efficiency of a scaled-up MW heated fluidised catalytic reactor allowing high CH4 conversion in a single pass thanks to direct catalyst heating (avoiding heat transfer limitations), whereas the avoidance of energy intensive gas separation will make the whole process energy positive, produce H2 and/or power at competitive cost while sequestrating solid carbon leading to negative GHG emissions.
(2) the direct conversion of biogas by simultaneous CH4 cracking and CO2 dry-reforming into H2 and solid Carbon materials. Higher H2 yield will be obtained by converting the produced CO into H2 with an additional Water-Gas Shift reactor allowing H2O splitting.
The valorisation of the Carbon materials is studied for two applications: 1/ soil amendment to enhance agriculture soil properties and 2/ production of silicon carbide materials using a renewable carbon source. The long-term storage of the carbon species and their microbiological impact when released into soils will be studied.
The scalability of the proposed MW heated reactor technology, together with a smart downstream process, is expected to allow the deployment of small, delocalised biogas-to-power units as well as large biogas-to-H2 and/or chemicals/fuels units in Europe. The best techno-economic solutions will be identified with respect to plant capacities and available infrastructures. While the scope of the project is the valorisation of biogas, the valorisation of methane-rich mixtures will also be studied for wider impact.
The pyrolysis of biogas is considered as a negative carbon-emission technology, since the carbon source is biomass and the carbon produced is captured in solid form.
Titan major innovations are expected for:
(1) the energy efficiency of a scaled-up MW heated fluidised catalytic reactor allowing high CH4 conversion in a single pass thanks to direct catalyst heating (avoiding heat transfer limitations), whereas the avoidance of energy intensive gas separation will make the whole process energy positive, produce H2 and/or power at competitive cost while sequestrating solid carbon leading to negative GHG emissions.
(2) the direct conversion of biogas by simultaneous CH4 cracking and CO2 dry-reforming into H2 and solid Carbon materials. Higher H2 yield will be obtained by converting the produced CO into H2 with an additional Water-Gas Shift reactor allowing H2O splitting.
The valorisation of the Carbon materials is studied for two applications: 1/ soil amendment to enhance agriculture soil properties and 2/ production of silicon carbide materials using a renewable carbon source. The long-term storage of the carbon species and their microbiological impact when released into soils will be studied.
The scalability of the proposed MW heated reactor technology, together with a smart downstream process, is expected to allow the deployment of small, delocalised biogas-to-power units as well as large biogas-to-H2 and/or chemicals/fuels units in Europe. The best techno-economic solutions will be identified with respect to plant capacities and available infrastructures. While the scope of the project is the valorisation of biogas, the valorisation of methane-rich mixtures will also be studied for wider impact.
The results obtained in the Titan project after 18 months show that direct biogas conversion in a fluidised catalytic reactor heated by MW and using iron as cheap, non-toxic and abundant metal catalyst can produce a syngas of suitable composition for methanol synthesis or for liquid hydrocarbons production via the Fisher-Tropsch process. Confirmed by a thermodynamic analysis, the reaction proceeds at temperatures above 900°C to produce carbon materials, whereas at lower temperatures the carbon is converted to CO by the Boudouard reaction. At 950°C, very high methane and CO2 conversions are achieved (>90% and 99%, respectively), accompanied by high hydrogen yield (>90%) and the sequestration of carbon with a turbostratic structure.
TITAN technical results indicate that the direct catalytic reforming of biogas in a fluidised bed, when combined in series with an FTS process, could allow the production of liquid fuels with no need for costly gas separation units, in particular those implemented for CO2 capture.
TITAN technical results indicate that the direct catalytic reforming of biogas in a fluidised bed, when combined in series with an FTS process, could allow the production of liquid fuels with no need for costly gas separation units, in particular those implemented for CO2 capture.