A major challenge in the scientific research for strategies that use low-cost renewable energy is to design and develop heterogeneous /homogeneous catalysis processes that use waste CO2 to produce fuels in a circular economy regime. In this paper a theoretical and experimental study aiming at reusing CO2 and implementing a validated laboratory technology based on a prototype methanation reactor producing carbon neutral methane through the chemical conversion of CO2 waste flue gases using renewable energies, is presented. The first operational line of the work is the theoretical, computational and experimental treatment of elementary reactive and non-reactive molecular processes occurring inside the reactor in order to optimize its operating conditions and to identify possible technological improvements that are more compatible with the environment. Experimental determinations of methane yield by the reactor have been carried out using CO2 either taken from commercial bottles or produced from fermentation of wine and vegetable exhausted materials. To this end we have also undertaken a computational and experimental investigation of a new methanation pathway aimed at avoiding the use of the solid catalyst, by exploring mechanisms involving a plasma generation by electrical discharges or by vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons on CO2 + H2 gas mixtures. The measurements performed using a microwave discharge beam source developed in our laboratory gave useful indications on how to proceed to develop alternative solutions to the present Ni catalysed apparatus by resorting to a gas-phase-only process for the reduction of CO2 to CH4. These results demonstrate that the chemical reactivity of plasmas containing CO2 should be strongly increased thanks to the presence of CO+ and O+ ions having a very high kinetic energy. These ionic species are produced via Coulomb explosion of CO22+ molecular dications by the same process responsible for the erosion of the atmosphere of Mars.
Free-Methane - from the Ionosphere of Mars Towards a Prototype Methanation Reactor: A Project Producing Fuels via Plasma Assisted Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation
Falcinelli S.
;Rosi M.;Parriani M.;
2021
Abstract
A major challenge in the scientific research for strategies that use low-cost renewable energy is to design and develop heterogeneous /homogeneous catalysis processes that use waste CO2 to produce fuels in a circular economy regime. In this paper a theoretical and experimental study aiming at reusing CO2 and implementing a validated laboratory technology based on a prototype methanation reactor producing carbon neutral methane through the chemical conversion of CO2 waste flue gases using renewable energies, is presented. The first operational line of the work is the theoretical, computational and experimental treatment of elementary reactive and non-reactive molecular processes occurring inside the reactor in order to optimize its operating conditions and to identify possible technological improvements that are more compatible with the environment. Experimental determinations of methane yield by the reactor have been carried out using CO2 either taken from commercial bottles or produced from fermentation of wine and vegetable exhausted materials. To this end we have also undertaken a computational and experimental investigation of a new methanation pathway aimed at avoiding the use of the solid catalyst, by exploring mechanisms involving a plasma generation by electrical discharges or by vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons on CO2 + H2 gas mixtures. The measurements performed using a microwave discharge beam source developed in our laboratory gave useful indications on how to proceed to develop alternative solutions to the present Ni catalysed apparatus by resorting to a gas-phase-only process for the reduction of CO2 to CH4. These results demonstrate that the chemical reactivity of plasmas containing CO2 should be strongly increased thanks to the presence of CO+ and O+ ions having a very high kinetic energy. These ionic species are produced via Coulomb explosion of CO22+ molecular dications by the same process responsible for the erosion of the atmosphere of Mars.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
