CO2 Utilization: Opportunities and Challenges

Power generation from combustion of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2) and contributes to rising greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere.  Designing an efficient and cost-effective processes for CO2 capture and reuse would help to reduce GHG emissions and provide an opportunity to turn CO2 into a feedstock for valuable products, such as chemicals and polymers or its incorporation into pre-existing products.  Currently, many of the feedstocks for the most widely used commodity chemicals are driven from non-sustainable carbon sources such as fossil fuels. Among these reaction processes is the production of syngas, which can be produced via partial oxidation or steam reforming of methane or coal.  An attractive route, to produce syngas, is carbon dioxide (CO2) reforming of methane (CH4), also known as dry reforming (DR). This reaction is highly endothermic, however, it offers the advantage of utilizing the greenhouse gases CH4 and CO2.  In this process, about 46% of CO in syngas comes from CO2 instead of CH4, leading to less consumption of natural gas.  The H2/CO ratio is 1, which is suitable for many applications such as the production of Dimethyl ether, Acetic acid, Vinyl acetate, Ethyl acetate, and Olefins.  The main drawback of this reaction is catalyst deactivation due to carbon deposition and metal sintering. 
To overcome this issue, catalyst with well controlled particle sizes and surface basicity were synthesized and tested. The catalyst performance (e.g., activity and stability) was evaluated under reaction conditions of temperature ranging from 650 to 850 ̊C and an operating pressure ranging from 1 to 20 bar. 

Speakers

Doctor Khalid Almusaiteer

Khalid Almusaiteer, Senior Manager, CO2 Transformation, Sabic