Renewable synthetic fuels by thermocatalytic conversion of methane and carbon dioxide

世界能源市场主要依赖化石燃料燃烧，这是一个导致大量二氧化碳排放的低效率过程。对化石燃料的严重依赖带来了经济、环境和地缘政治后果，而可再生能源无法提供足够的能源供应来满足不断增长的需求。需要更有效地利用化石燃料，最好是通过纳入可再生能源和废物流。拟议的研究计划旨在开发可持续的路线，用于从甲烷（CH 4）和二氧化碳（CO2）生产合成可再生燃料，这些化合物丰富但非常稳定，其转化在动力学和化学上都是有限的。为了应对这些挑战，将通过基于催化剂开发，反应器设计和系统优化的集成的多尺度方法设计热催化转化的新路线。 目标是将（来自沼气、烟道气等的）CO2捕集与联合收割机结合起来。通过热催化转化使用可再生能源。该方法依赖于多相催化和高度集成的反应器的使用。一种方法是通过逆水煤气变换反应进行CO2加氢或使用由太阳能和风能驱动的电解产生的H2进行甲烷化，以生产可再生合成气或可再生天然气。另一种方法是甲烷干重整，其中二氧化碳被用作氧化剂，而集中的太阳能可以用作热源。这些过程中的每一个都消耗或释放大量的热量，并且除热和供热以及催化剂活性和稳定性是主要障碍之一。重点将放在新兴的催化材料（如过渡金属碳化物和合金）和纳米结构（如核壳纳米粒子，纳米棒等）的应用。开发高活性、稳定、低成本的催化剂。另一个重点将是反应堆的热管理，包括先进的反应堆设计（如熔盐冷却）和使用低成本的集中太阳能（抛物面槽）。优化将依赖于建模和数值模拟。* 化学固定CO2的进展对反应工程领域非常重要，并将对加拿大和其他寻求减少对化石燃料依赖的国家具有重要的实际意义。通过甲烷化生产可再生天然气可以成为电力天然气技术的基础，允许可再生能源储存和电网负载平衡（电网不太适合风能和太阳能等瞬态能源）。将二氧化碳排放废物流转化为合成气将建立废物-燃料链，以生产甲醇或石蜡（从合成气）。拟议的研究计划的一个重要组成部分是HQP培训，通过导师制，接触研究环境和环境教育的组合。

The world's energy market mainly relies on fossil fuel combustion, a low efficiency process that leads to large CO2 emissions. Heavy dependence on fossil fuels has economic, environmental, and geopolitical consequences, while renewables cannot provide sufficient energy supply to meet growing demands. More efficient utilization of fossil fuels is required, preferably via the incorporation of renewable energy and waste streams. The proposed research program is aimed at developing sustainable routes for the production of synthetic renewable fuels from methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), abundant but very stable compounds, whose conversion is limited kinetically and thermodynamically. To address these challenges, novel routes of thermocatalytic conversion will be designed via a multi-scale approach based on integration of catalyst development, reactor design, and system optimization.**** The objective is to combine CO2 capture (from biogas, flue gas etc.) with the use of renewable energy via thermocatalytic conversion. The methodology relies on the use of heterogeneous catalysis and highly-integrated reactors. One approach is CO2 hydrogenation via reverse water gas shift reaction or methanation using H2 generated by electrolysis driven by solar and wind electricity, to produce renewable syngas or renewable natural gas. Another approach is CH4 dry reforming, in which CO2 is utilized as an oxidant, while concentrated solar power can be used as a source of heat. Each of these processes either consumes or releases large amounts of heat, and heat removal and supply are among major obstacles, as well as catalyst activity and stability. The emphasis will be on the application of emerging catalytic materials (e.g. transition metal carbides and alloys) and nano-structuring (e.g. core-shell nanoparticles, nanorods etc.) to develop highly active and stable, low-cost catalysts. Another focus will be on reactor thermal management, including advanced reactor designs (e.g. molten salt-cooled) and the use of low-cost concentrated solar energy (parabolic troughs). Optimization will rely on modeling and numerical simulations.**** Advances in chemical fixation of CO2 are very important to the field of Reaction Engineering and will have important practical implications for Canada and other countries seeking ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The production of renewable natural gas via methanation could be a basis for power-to-gas technology, allowing renewable energy storage and electrical grid load balancing (the grid is not well-suited to transient sources such as wind and solar). The conversion of CO2-reach waste streams into syngas will establish a waste-to-fuel chain to produce methanol or paraffins (from syngas). An important part of the proposed research program is HQP training, through a combination of mentorship, exposure to the research environment, and environmental education.***