1. Applications
     Creation of synthetic natural gas    Ammonia synthesis    International Space Station life support    Manufacturing propellant on Mars  

2. See also

3. References

4. External links

CO2{} + 4H2 ->[{}\\atop 400\\ ^\\circ\\ce{C}][\\ce{pressure}] CH4{} + 2H2O{{pad}}∆H = −165.0 kJ/mol

There is disagreement on whether the CO₂ methanation occurs by first associatively adsorbing an adatom hydrogen and forming oxygen intermediates before hydrogenation or dissociating and forming a carbonyl before being hydrogenated.^[3]

{CO} + 3H2 -> {CH4} + H2O{{pad}}∆H = −206 kJ/mol

CO methanation is believed to occur through a dissociative mechanism where the carbon oxygen bond is broken before hydrogenation with an associative mechanism only being observed at high H₂ concentrations.

Methanation reaction over different carried metal catalysts including Ni,^[4] Ru ^[5] and Rh^[6] has been widely investigated for the production of CH₄ from syngas and other power to gas initiatives.^[3] Nickel is the most widely used catalyst due to its high selectivity and low cost.^[2]

Applications

Creation of synthetic natural gas

The first commercial synthetic gas plant opened in 1984 and is the Great Plains Synfuel plant in Beulah, North Dakota.^[8] It is still operational and produces 1500 MW worth of SNG using coal as the carbon source. In the years since its opening, other commercial facilities have been opened using other carbons sources such as wood chips.^[8]

In France, the AFUL Chantrerie, located in Nantes, started in November 2017 the demonstrator MINERVE. This methanation unit of 14 Nm3 / day was carried out by Top Industrie, with the support of Leaf. This installation is used to feed a CNG station and to inject methane into the natural gas boiler. ^[9]

It has been seen in a renewable-energy-dominated energy system to use the excess electricity generated by wind, solar photovoltaic, hydro, marine current, etc. to make hydrogen via water electrolysis and the subsequent application of the Sabatier reaction to make methane ^[10][11]

In contrast to a direct usage of hydrogen for transport or energy storage applications,^[12] the methane can be injected into the existing gas network, which in many countries has one to two years of storage capacity ^[13][14][15]. The methane can then be used on demand to generate electricity (and heat—combined heat and power) overcoming low points of renewable energy production. The process is electrolysis of water by electricity to create hydrogen (which can partly be used directly in fuel cells) and the addition of carbon dioxide CO₂ (Sabatier process) to create methane. The CO₂ can be extracted from the air or fossil fuel waste gases by the amine process, amongst many others. It is a low-CO₂ system, and has similar efficiencies of today's energy system.

A 6 MW power-to-gas plant went into production in Germany in 2013, and powered a fleet of 1500 Audi A3s.^[16]

Ammonia synthesis

In ammonia production CO and CO₂ are considered poisons to most commonly used catalysts.^[17] Methanation catalysts are added after several hydrogen producing steps to prevent carbon oxide buildup in the ammonia synthesis loop as methane does not have similar adverse effects on ammonia synthesis rates.

International Space Station life support

Oxygen generators on board the International Space Station produce oxygen from water using electrolysis; the hydrogen produced was previously discarded into space. As astronauts consume oxygen, carbon dioxide is produced, which must then be removed from the air and discarded as well. This approach required copious amounts of water to be regularly transported to the space station for oxygen generation in addition to that used for human consumption, hygiene, and other uses—a luxury that will not be available to future long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit.

NASA is using the Sabatier reaction to recover water from exhaled carbon dioxide and the hydrogen previously discarded from electrolysis on the International Space Station and possibly for future missions.^[18][19] The other resulting chemical, methane, is released into space. As half of the input hydrogen becomes wasted as methane, additional hydrogen is supplied from Earth to make up the difference. However, this creates a nearly-closed cycle between water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide which only requires a relatively modest amount of imported hydrogen to maintain.

Ignoring other results of respiration, this cycle looks like{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}:

2H2O ->[\\text{hydrolysis}] O2{} + 2H2 ->[\\text{respiration}] CO2{} + 2H2{} + \\overset{added}{2H2} -> 2H2O{} + \\overset{discarded}{CH4}

The loop could be further closed if the waste methane was separated into its component parts by pyrolysis, the high efficiency (up to 95% conversion) of which can be achieved at 1200°C^[20]:

CH4 ->[\\text{heat}] C{} + 2H2

The released hydrogen would then be recycled back into the Sabatier reactor, leaving an easily removed deposit of pyrolytic graphite. The reactor would be little more than a steel pipe, and could be periodically serviced by an astronaut where the deposit is chiselled out.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}

Alternatively, the loop could be partially closed (75% of H₂ from CH₄ recovered) by incomplete pyrolysis of the waste methane while keeping the carbon locked up in gaseous form as acetylene:^[21]

2CH4 ->[\\text{heat}] C2H2{} + 3H2

The Bosch reaction is also being investigated by NASA for this purpose and is:^[22]

CO2 + 2H2 -> C + 2H2O

The Bosch reaction would present a completely closed hydrogen and oxygen cycle which only produces atomic carbon as waste. However, difficulties maintaining its temperature of up to 600 °C and properly handling carbon deposits mean significantly more research will be required before a Bosch reactor could become a reality. One problem is that the production of elemental carbon tends to foul the catalyst's surface (coking), which is detrimental to the reaction's efficiency.

Manufacturing propellant on Mars

The Sabatier reaction has been proposed as a key step in reducing the cost of manned exploration of Mars (Mars Direct, Interplanetary Transport System) through in-situ resource utilization. Hydrogen is combined with CO₂ from the atmosphere, with methane then stored as fuel and the water side product electrolyzed yielding oxygen to be liquefied and stored as oxidizer and hydrogen to be recycled back into the reactor. The original hydrogen could be transported from Earth or separated from Martian sources of water.^[23]

A variation of the basic Sabatier methanation reaction may be used via a mixed catalyst bed and a reverse water gas shift in a single reactor to produce methane from the raw materials available on Mars, utilizing carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere and water extracted from the Martian subsoil or atmosphere.^[24] A 2011 prototype test operation that harvested CO₂ from a simulated Martian atmosphere and reacted it with H₂, produced methane rocket propellant at a rate of 1 kg/day, operating autonomously for 5 consecutive days, maintaining a nearly 100% conversion rate. An optimized system of this design massing 50 kg "is projected to produce 1 kg/day of O₂:CH₄ propellant ... with a methane purity of 98+% while consuming 700 Watts of electrical power." Overall unit conversion rate expected from the optimized system is one tonne of propellant per 17 MWh energy input.^[25]

The stoichiometric ratio of oxidizer and fuel is 2:1, for an oxygen:methane engine:

CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O

However, one pass through the Sabatier reactor produces a ratio of only 1:1. More oxygen may be produced by running the water-gas shift reaction in reverse, effectively extracting oxygen from the atmosphere by reducing carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

Another option is to make more methane than needed and pyrolyze the excess of it into carbon and hydrogen (see above section), where the hydrogen is recycled back into the reactor to produce further methane and water. In an automated system, the carbon deposit may be removed by blasting with hot Martian CO₂, oxidizing the carbon into carbon monoxide, which is vented.{{original research inline|date=March 2014}}

A fourth solution to the stoichiometry problem would be to combine the Sabatier reaction with the reverse water-gas shift reaction in a single reactor as follows:{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

3CO2 + 6H2 -> CH4 + 2CO + 4H2O

This reaction is slightly exothermic, and when the water is electrolyzed, an oxygen to methane ratio of 2:1 is obtained.

Regardless of which method of oxygen fixation is utilized, the overall process can be summarized by the following equation:{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

2H2 + 3CO2 -> CH4 + 2O2 + 2CO

Looking at molecular masses, we have produced 16 grams of methane and 64 grams of oxygen using 4 grams of hydrogen (which would have to be imported from Earth, unless Martian water was electrolysed), for a mass gain of 20:1; and the methane and oxygen are in the right stochiometric ratio to be burned in a rocket engine. This kind of in-situ resource utilization would result in massive weight and cost savings to any proposed manned Mars or sample-return missions.

See also

• In situ resource utilization
• Microlith (catalytic reactor)^[26]
• Timeline of hydrogen technologies
• Steam reforming
• Fischer–Tropsch process
• Electromethanogenesis

References

External links

• A Crewed Mission to Mars
• Development of an improved Sabatier reactor
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051117174221/http://www.isso.uh.edu/publications/A9900/pdf/rich84.pdf Improved Sabatier Reactions for In Situ Resource Utilization on Mars Missions]
• Catalytic methanation experimental instructions, videos, and theory

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