Joint-use of activated carbon and carbon black to enhance catalytic stability during chemical looping methane decomposition process

Abstract

Chemical-looping methane decomposition using activated carbon as a catalyst has been considered a potentially promising approach for high-purity H2 production with low cost and low CO2 emission. However, activated carbon is known to deactivate fast despite its high initial catalytic activity. Oppositely, carbon black has shown stable catalytic methane decomposition that even increases slowly with time of reaction. Considering these two different activity trends, activated carbon and carbon black are jointly used to prepare catalysts and then test for the decomposition of the methane via chemical looping in this study that aimed to examine catalyst and reaction properties which may combine the high initial activity of activated carbon with the steady-and-increasing activity of carbon black. These mixed catalysts are examined using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) before and after reaction testing to reveal chemical and physical constituents which contributed to their reactivities, and the mechanism of long catalytic activity has been discussed. The results point to insights and potential directions for modifying carbonaceous catalysts for chemical looping thermo-catalytic decomposition of methane.