A critical review of synthetic natural gas production techniques and technologies

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of renewable and non-renewable synthetic natural gas production processes, technologies, and catalysts used to enhance the methanation processes. By completing this review, researchers have successfully provided a road-map for synthetic natural gas production research, as well as describing the current landscape for synthetic natural gas production, particularly within Canada and the United States. In addition, the tropose recycle energy efficient methanation process proved to be highly beneficial due to the fact that this process was considered to be energy-efficient, economically viable, and was capable of producing a yield of up to 98%. Furthermore, nickel was considered to be a highly favourable choice as a catalyst to facilitate the methanation process, given its high activity and selectivity ranking and low cost. Moreover, the fixed-bed reactor systems were determined to be a common choice for synthetic natural gas production due to their simple and effective design. However, honeycomb reactors and microchannel reactors were considered more favourable in regards to catalysts exposure within the rectors.