Methane Pyrolysis

Abstract

Methane pyrolysis is gaining attention as one of the promising technologies for mitigating climate change in the world today. Methane pyrolysis technology is a method for producing clean hydrogen with carbon as a byproduct. Depending on the type of feedstock used, this method produces little to no CO2 emissions. In this study, literature on methane pyrolysis is reviewed as well as the state of the art of different methane pyrolysis technologies. Biogas and natural gas feedstocks are pyrolyzed in both Gibbs reactor and fluidized bed reactor using Aspen Plus Software. The catalyst used in the catalytic methane pyrolysis is 50%Ni-10%Fe-10%Cu/Al2O3. A sensitivity analysis on the impact of temperature, pressure and flowrate on methane conversion is investigated for both natural gas and biogas in both reactors. The results are compared with experimental data. The results of this study indicate that increasing temperatures favor methane conversion for both biogas and natural gas feeds in both reactors. Increasing inlet flowrate resulted in a decline in methane conversion for both feeds in the fluidized bed reactor. Interestingly, increasing the inlet pressure for the Gibbs reactor resulted in a decrease in methane conversion, whereas for the fluidized bed reactor, an opposing effect was recorded. Notably, biogas exhibited higher methane conversion as compared to natural gas, with about 23.7% higher conversions in the fluidized bed reactor and approximately 6.4% higher conversions in the Gibbs reactor. The average error percentage calculated from comparison of the simulation and experimental results was recorded to be 8%. This work enhances the understanding of the parametric effects on biogas and natural gas decomposition in Gibbs and fluidized bed reactors using Aspen plus software. The results achieved from this thesis were compared with studies from existing literature.