Method and system for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel using microwave assisted methane decomposition on catalyst
AssigneeEden Energy Ltd.
InventorsZhonghua John Zhu, Jiuling Chen, Gaoqing Max Lu, Gregory Solomon
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Abstract
A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel includes the steps of providing a flow of methane gas, and providing a catalyst. The method also includes the steps of heating the catalyst instead of the reactor walls and the methane gas using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power, directing the flow of methane gas over the catalyst, and controlling the microwave power to produce a product gas having a selected composition. A system for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel includes a methane gas source, a reactor containing a catalyst, and a microwave power source configured to heat the catalyst.
Claims23
A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:
- providing a flow of methane gas;
- preparing a catalyst comprising NiO and Al2O3 by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor from an aqueous solution;
- heating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power;
- directing the flow of methane gas over the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to fibrous carbon and hydrogen;
- and
- controlling the flow of the methane gas and the microwave power to produce a solid carbon product comprised of the fibrous carbon and a product gas comprising about 20% to 30% hydrogen by volume and about 70% to 80% methane by volume.
A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:
- providing a flow of methane gas at a selected flow rate;
- preparing a catalyst by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor such that the catalyst has a composition of Ni8Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83M6Al where Ni comprises NiO, Al comprises Al2O3, Cu comprises CuO and Mg comprises MgO;
- heating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power;
- directing the flow of methane gas over the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to fibrous carbon and hydrogen;
- and
- controlling the preparing step, controlling the flow of methane gas, and controlling the microwave power to produce a product gas comprising about 70% to 80% unreacted methane and about 20% to 30% hydrogen.
A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:
- providing a tube reactor having a reaction chamber with microwave transparent walls in flow communication with a methane source;
- preparing a catalyst by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor such that the catalyst has a composition of Ni81Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83Mg6Al where Ni comprises NiO, Al comprises Al2O3, Cu comprises CuO and Mg comprises MgO;
- placing the catalyst in the reaction chamber on a microwave transparent holder;
- providing a microwave generator;
- pretreating the catalyst by directing a hydrogen plasma over the catalyst for a selected time period;
- irradiating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power of the microwave generator;
- directing a flow of methane gas through the reaction chamber into contact with the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to hydrogen gas and solid carbon;
- and
- controlling the preparing step, controlling the irradiating step, and controlling the directing step to produce a product gas comprising about 70% to 80% unreacted methane and about 20% to 30% of the hydrogen gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.