Author: Bruna Rêgo de Vasconcelos

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13:

Among the products resulting from biomass or organic waste transformation, CO2 and CH4 are important chemical intermediates. They also have a strong environmental impact since they are primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect and their mitigation is a key issue. An attractive way of valorization of such gases is the dry reforming of methane (DRM), which converts CO2 and CH4 into syngas (mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide). This mixture can be used for several applications, such as the production of methanol, dimethyl ether, hydrogen and liquid hydrocarbons. Despite such interest, the exploitation of DRM on industrial scale has not emerged yet. The main reason is the rapid deactivation of the catalysts due to the severe operating conditions of the process (high temperature, carbon deposition). This thesis focuses on the development of new catalysts based on calcium phosphate (CaP) doped with transition metals for the valorization of CO2 and CH4 through DRM. Actually,CaP has advantageous properties in heterogeneous catalysis, as the simultaneous presence of acid and basic sites, good thermal stability, and wide range of surface area... Initially, a study on the catalyst synthesis methods and an investigation of the performance of different transition metals (Zn, Fe, Co, Cu, Ni) were carried out in order to select the catalyst system and the preparation method. Secondly, a fixed-bed reactor capable of operating at high temperature and pressure and for log time on stream was built and implemented during this work in order to properly evaluate the performance of the preparedcatalysts. Then, a detailed parametric study was conducted. The influence of parameters such as catalyst pre-treatment, temperature (T = 400-700°C) and pressure (P = 1-25bar) of the reaction and support (hydroxyapatite, alumina-based supports) were investigated. Finally, the catalytic stability was studied for 300h of time on stream (TOS). The CaP catalysts showing higher yields on syngas were compared to commercial catalysts. Our catalysts showed to be competitive in the same operating conditions (T = 700°C, P = 1bar, WHSV = 12272mLh-1gcat-1,TOS = 300h). This work shows the interest of CaP catalysts for high temperature process, such as dry reforming of methane.