Methane combustion over Pt and Pt-Pd catalysts

Abstract

A major challenge faced by the transportation sector is vehicle emissions of green house gases (GHG). This issue has led to extensive research on alternative fuels with a lower carbon foot print such as natural gas. Increased use of natural gas as a fuel shall increase methane emissions. Catalytic combustion provides an efficient approach to tackle the problem of fugitive methane emissions. This thesis reports on an investigation of lean methane oxidation over two different catalysts namely Pt and Pt/Pd catalysts. Catalytic activities and the influences of different pretreatments on the catalyst performance were studied through ignition-extinction experiments. It was found that catalysts had stable and high activity for methane combustion. However, these abilities were strongly compromised by the presence of additional water in the feed.