A review on state-of-the-art catalysts for methane partial oxidation to syngas production

ABSTRACT

The rapid and severe deactivation of methane partial oxidation catalysts remains a major hindrance restraining its potential in commercialization and industrialization for large-scale syngas production. It is imperative to provide an in-depth understanding discission about the intrinsic and synergistic interactions of catalyst components toward the catalyst efficiency during reforming reactions. This review presents a contemporary evaluation of recent works on synergistic relationship among catalyst components (support, active metals and catalyst structure) during methane partial oxidation using theoretical and state-of-the-art experimental procedures. Advancements achieved through this synergistic relationship not only enhance properties of existing catalysts but also leading to discovery and development of novel catalyst systems. Thermodynamics, reaction mechanisms, catalytic performances, catalyst deactivation induced by carbonaceous deposition and reaction kinetic modeling have been successfully explored and described using information from these essential interactive factors over these decades. This viewpoint explains the roles of the interactions and their functions toward exploration of efficient catalysts systems for industrial applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Synergistic interaction
• methane oxidation
• combustion-reforming
• syngas
• heterogeneous catalysis
• catalyst design

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial aid by the Transdisciplinary Research Grant (No. 06G52 and 06G53) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Zamalah Scholarship (Tan Ji Siang) for this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).