Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new catalyst that converts greenhouse gases into syngas, a key resource for producing cleaner fuels and chemical feedstocks. According to ORNL, the improved dry reforming of methane process transforms methane and carbon dioxide—both significant contributors to global warming—into syngas, which is used in various industries, including fuel production and pharmaceuticals.
Syngas plays a critical role, especially for countries without oil reserves, as it is a key component in the production of diesel and gasoline. Additionally, syngas serves as a foundation for producing other chemicals, such as hydrogen for clean fuel and methanol, which is important for hydrogen storage and as a base for plastics and synthetic materials. Felipe Polo-Garzon, one of the study leads from ORNL, noted that previous challenges in rapidly deactivating catalysts at the high temperatures required for converting gases into syngas have limited the commercial viability of this process—until now.
Leveraging zeolite, a crystalline material made up of silicon, aluminum, oxygen, and nickel, scientists managed to curb the typical catalyst deactivation that plagued earlier attempts at dry reforming of methane. This new catalyst resists sintering — the unwanted clumping of nickel particles — and prevents coke formation, which obstructs the catalyst's active sites. "We're effectively creating a strong bond between the nickel and the zeolite host," Polo-Garzon told ORNL. By forming this bond, the catalyst maintains a large surface area that is paramount for sustaining reactions and resists degrading even at high operating temperatures.
The significance of the breakthrough cannot be underestimated, given that current commercial syngas production relies heavily on steam reforming of methane, which not only consumes large quantities of water and energy but also produces carbon dioxide; whereas the dry reforming approach uses no water and instead consumes the greenhouse gases, the research team has already applied for a patent for their valuable invention. In their pursuit of even more stable catalysts solutions for dry methane reforming viable under various conditions, the ORNL team continues to explore alternative methods to activate reactant molecules, "We relied on rational design, not trial and error, to make the catalyst better," Polo-Garzon elaborated, highlighting the systematic and deliberate approach underpinning their innovation for broad industrial process application.
Support for this environmentally impactful research came from the DOE Office of Science, and it utilized several Office of Science user facilities, such as the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL and the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven. UT-Battelle manages ORNL on behalf of the DOE’s Office of Science, the largest supporter of physical sciences research in the United States.
