| Abstract |
Carbon dioxide can be converted, by reaction with hydrogen, into fine chemicals and liquid fuels such as methanol and DME. Methane production by the Sabatier reaction opens the way of carbon recycling for a circular economy of carbon resources. The catalytic process of methanation of carbon dioxide produces two molecules of water as a by-product. A current limitation in the CO2 methanation is the ageing of catalysts, mainly due to water adsorption during the process. To avoid this adsorption, the process is operated at high temperature (300 degrees C-400 degrees C), leading to carbon deposition on the catalyst and its deactivation. To overcome this problem, a methanation plasma-catalytic process has been developed, which achieves high CO2 conversion rate (80%), and a selectivity close to 100%, working from room temperature to 150 degrees C, instead of 300 degrees C-400 degrees C for the thermal catalytic process. The main characteristics of this process are high-voltage pulses of few nanoseconds duration, activating the adsorption of CO2 in bent configuration and the polarization of the catalyst. The key step in this process is the desorption of water from the polarized catalyst. The high CO2 conversion at low temperature could be explained by the creation of a plasma inside the nanopores of the catalyst. |
