A viable system for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) methanation over fibrous silica ZSM-5 for substitute natural gas (SNG)

Abstract

Catalytic CO2 methanation offers an attractive and sustainable way for the production of substituted natural gas (SNG), which may be used as a clean alternative energy source than fossil fuels. A metal-free fibrous silica ZSM-5 catalyst (FS@ZSM-5) was synthesized via the microemulsion technique to conduct catalytic CO2 methanation. The FESEM, BET, and FTIR characterization techniques were used to investigate the surface morphology, pore structure of the catalysts. It was noticed that the commercialized ZSM-5 showed 37% CH4 selectivity with a rate of methane formation 0.067 mmol m-2s-1. While FS@ZSM-5 exhibited high CH4 selectivity of 66 % with rate of methane formation 0.108 mmol m-2s-1 using same conditions (T = 500 °C and GHSV = 36,000 mL h-1 g-1). Therefore, the FS@ZSM-5 was proved an efficient and active catalyst for CO2 methanation activity.