Integrated CO2 Capture and Dry Reforming of CH4 to Syngas: A Review.

Integrating carbon capture with dry reforming of methane offers a promising approach to addressing greenhouse gas emissions while producing valuable syngas. This review examines the complexities and progress made in this integrated process, wherein catalysts play a critical role in adsorbing carbon dioxide and facilitating the conversion of methane to syngas. The chemical process entails the concurrent capture of CO2 emissions and their usage in dry reforming, a reaction in which CH4 interacts with CO2 to generate syngas, an essential precursor for various industrial applications. The dual-functional materials can adsorb carbon dioxide and actively reform to an end-use application. The much-studied Ca-based sorbents exhibit a theoretical carbon capture capacity of 17.8 mmol g-1. However, during practical exploration of these materials as a dual-functional catalyst for integrated carbon capture and the dry reforming of methane, the uptake reduces to ∼13 mmol g-1 carbon capacity with 96.5 and 96% conversions of CO2 and CH4, respectively. Therefore, a thorough analysis of the complex relationship between CO2 capture and CH4 reforming catalysis is attempted herein based on various reported materials. Design concepts, structural optimization, and performance evaluation analysis of the dual-functional materials reveal their importance in carbon capture and reformation technology. Additionally, this review covers the field difficulties, future perspectives, and attractive commercial implementation predictions. This scrutiny illustrates the significance of dual-functional materials for sustainable energy production and environmental protection.

Morphologically tuned CuO-ZnO-CeO2 catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol.

Morphologically modified composite CuO-ZnO-CeO2 catalysts were synthesized using a single-step hydrothermal technique. The study highlights the influence of solvent on the structural and physico-chemical properties of the catalysts. Various techniques, such as XRD, FE-SEM, BET, XPS, and H2-TPR, were used to analyze the catalyst properties. Among the synthesized materials, the catalyst, prepared with a N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF)-to-metal nitrates ratio of 20 (named as CZC-1), showed enhanced active sites in the form of surface features such as nanowire-like morphology, large surface area, low crystallite size, increased oxygen vacancies, and high CuO dispersion. A bench-scale fixed-bed flow reactor was used to examine the catalytic performance of the catalysts. At 225 °C reactor temperature, 30 bar reactor pressure, and with a space velocity of 6000 cm3 gcat-1 h-1, the CZC-1 catalyst showed 13.6% CO2 conversion and 74.1% methanol selectivity. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) analysis confirmed the carbonate-formate-methoxy reaction pathway for methanol formation using the CZC-1 catalyst.

Electro-Oxidation Reaction of Methanol over La2-xSrxNi1-y(Mn/Fe/Co)yO4+δ Ruddlesden-Popper Oxides.

Solution combustion-synthesized Ruddlesden-Popper oxides La1.4Sr0.6Ni0.9(Mn/Fe/Co)0.1O4+δ were explored for the methanol electro-oxidation reaction. With optimal doping of Sr2+ in the A site and Co2+ in the B site, Ni3+ with t2g6 dx2-y21 configuration in La1.4Sr0.6Ni0.9Co0.1O4+δ exhibited a tetragonal distortion with compression in axial bonds and elongation in equatorial bonds. This structural modification fostered an augmented overlap of dz2 orbitals with axial O 2p orbitals, leading to a heightened density of states at the Fermi level. Consequently, this facilitated not only elevated electrical conductivity but also a noteworthy reduction in the charge transfer resistance. These effects collectively contributed to the exceptional methanol oxidation activity of La1.4Sr0.6Ni0.9Co0.1O4+δ, as evidenced by an impressive current density of 21.4 mA cm-2 and retention of 95% of initial current density even after 10 h of prolonged reaction. The presence of Ni3+ further played a pivotal role in the creation of NiOOH, a crucial intermediate species, facilitated by the presence of surface oxygen vacancies. These factors synergistically enabled efficient methanol oxidation. In summary, our present study not only yields substantial insights but also paves the way for a novel avenue to fine-tune the activity of Ruddlesden-Popper oxides for the successful electro-oxidation of methanol.

Technological solutions for NOx, SOx, and VOC abatement: recent breakthroughs and future directions.

NOx, SOx, and carbonaceous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are extremely harmful to the environment, and their concentrations must be within the limits prescribed by the region-specific pollution control boards. Thus, NOx, SOx, and VOC abatement is essential to safeguard the environment. Considering the importance of NOx, SOx, and VOC abatement, the discussion on selective catalytic reduction, oxidation, redox methods, and adsorption using noble metal and non-noble metal-based catalytic approaches were elaborated. This article covers different thermal treatment techniques, category of materials as catalysts, and its structure-property insights along with the advanced oxidation processes and adsorption. The defect engineered catalysts with lattice oxygen vacancies, bi- and tri-metallic noble metal catalysts and non-noble metal catalysts, modified metal organic frameworks, mixed-metal oxide supports, and their mechanisms have been thoroughly reviewed. The main hurdles and potential achievements in developing novel simultaneous NOx, SOx, and VOC removal technologies are critically discussed to envisage the future directions. This review highlights the removal of NOx, SOx, and VOC through material selection, properties, and mechanisms to further improve the existing abatement methods in an efficient way.

Recent advances in heavy metal removal by chitosan based adsorbents.

Chitosan, a low cost polymer, has been used in many studies for adsorption of heavy metal ions. This review covers the performance of all those adsorbents which were derived from chitosan for the adsorption of heavy metal ions in recent past. Further, the common chitosan modifications methods have been discussed in this paper among which crosslinking and grafting were found to be the most popular methods. Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics were also studied and Pseudo-second order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm were found to be successful for modeling of most of the chitosan derivatives-metal adsorption experiments. Moreover, with focus on chitosan derivatives, effect of adsorbent structure on metal removal, adsorption mechanism, effect of co-existing ions on adsorption, adsorbent synthesis protocols and regeneration methods have been also discussed in great detail. Finally, fixed bed column design for industrial wastewater treatment was elaborated along with efficiency of chitosan based adsorbents in columns.

Role of Hydrogen and Oxygen Activation over Pt and Pd-Doped Composites for Catalytic Hydrogen Combustion.

Removal of excess amount of hydrogen in a catalytic route is a safety measure to be implemented in fuel cell technologies and in nuclear power plants. Hydrogen and oxygen activation are crucial steps for hydrogen combustion that can be achieved by modifying supports with suitable noble metals. In the present study, Pt- and Pd-substituted Co3O4-ZrO2 (CZ) were synthesized using PEG-assisted sonochemical synthesis. Ionic states of Pt and Pd in CZ supports were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Pd and Pt improved H2 and O2 activation extensively, which reduced the temperature of 50% conversion (T50%) to 33 °C compared with the support (CZ). The activation energy of PdCZ catalyst was decreased by more than 2 folds (13.4 ± 1.2 kJ mol-1) compared with CZ (34.3 ± 2.3 kJ mol-1). The effect of oxygen vacancies in the reaction mechanism is found to be insignificant with Pt- and Pd-substituted CZ supports. However, oxygen vacancies play an important role when CZ alone was used as catalyst. The importance of hydrogen and oxygen activation as well as the oxygen vacancies in mechanism was studied by H2-TPD, H2-TPR, and in situ FTIR spectroscopy.