Search

CA-3156841-C - CATALYST COMPOSITION FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN

CA3156841CCA 3156841 CCA3156841 CCA 3156841CCA-3156841-C

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a catalyst composition comprising: (a) nickel; (b) at least one promoter selected from Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, Mg, Ce, Ti, Zr, Fe, Pd, Ag, Pt, or combinations thereof; and (c) a support material, wherein, the nickel loading is in the range of 6-19 wt% and the at least one promoter loading is in the range of 0.2-5 wt% with respect to the support material. The present disclosure further discloses a process for preparing a catalyst composition and a process each for the production of hydrogen gas and carbon nanotubes. Also disclosed herein, is use of a catalyst composition for obtaining hydrogen gas and carbon nanotubes.

Inventors

  • Lavanya Meesala
  • Pramod Kumar

Assignees

  • HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION LIMITED

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20210603
Priority Date
20200826

Claims (16)

  1. We Claim: 1. A catalyst composition comprising: (a) nickel; (b) at least one promoter selected from Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, Mg, Ti, Zr, Fe, Ag, or combinations thereof; and (c) a support material is steamed biochar or spent FCC equilibrium catalyst; wherein the nickel loading is in the range of 6-19 wt% and the at least one promoter loading is in the range of 0.2-5 wt°/4 with respect to the support material; and wherein the steamed biochar has a surface area in the range of 700-950 m2/g and a pore volume in the range of 0.60 - 0.70 cc/g.
  2. 2. The composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one promoter loading is in the range of 1-5 wt% with respect to the support material.
  3. 3. The composition as claimed in any one of the claim 1-2, wherein the at least one 15 promoter is a combination of Cu and Zn.
  4. 4. The composition as claimed in claim 3, wherein the Cu loading is in the range of 0.5- 4 wt°/4 and Zn loading is in the range of 0.5-4 wt% with respect to the support material.
  5. 5. The catalyst composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steamed biochar is obtained from heating a raw support material selected from the group consisting of raw biochar sawdust, raw biochar rice straw, raw biochar rice husk, raw biochar bagasse, other agricultural wastes, and combinations thereof.
  6. 6. A process for preparing the catalyst composition as claimed in claim 1, the process compnsmg: (a) contacting a salt of nickel and a salt of the at least one promoter to obtain a mixture; (b) impregnating the mixture on to the support material to obtain an impregnated catalyst material; and ( c) calcining the impregnated catalyst material to obtain the catalyst composition. 30
  7. 7. The process as claimed in claim 6, wherein the support material is steamed biochar obtained by steaming of raw support material selected from the group consisting of raw biochar sawdust, raw biochar rice straw, raw biochar rice husk, raw biochar Date Re9ue/Date Received 2024-02-26 31 bagasse, other agricultural wastes, and combinations thereof at a temperature in the range of 700 to 900 °c for a time period in the range of 5 - 10 hours.
  8. 8. A process for the production of hydrogen gas from light hydrocarbon, comprising: (a) adding the catalyst composition as claimed in claim 1 in a reactor; (b) passing the light hydrocarbon over a catalyst bed at a temperature in the range of 300-750 °c at atmospheric pressure for 20-50 hours; and (c) obtaining a product stream comprising hydrogen gas.
  9. 9. The process as claimed in claim 8, wherein the product stream is free of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. 10
  10. 10. The process as claimed in claim 8, wherein the process produces 10-30% of hydrogen gas of the total content of the light hydrocarbon.
  11. 11. The process as claimed in claim 8, wherein the product stream is processed to obtain carbon nanotubes.
  12. 12. A process for the production of carbon nanotubes from a light hydrocarbon, compnsmg: (a) adding the catalyst composition as claimed in claim 1 in a reactor; (b) passing the light hydrocarbon over a catalyst bed at a temperature in the range of 300-750 °cat atmospheric pressure for 20-50 hours; and ( c) obtaining a product stream comprising hydrogen gas and a mixture; ( d) processing the mixture to obtain carbon nanotubes.
  13. 13. The process as claimed in claim 12, wherein the product stream is free of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
  14. 14. The process as claimed in claim 12, wherein the carbon nanotubes have purity in the range of 90-99%. 25
  15. 15. The process as claimed in any one of the claims 8-14, wherein the light hydrocarbon is selected from methane, ethane, propane, butane, ethylene, acetylene, or combinations thereof.
  16. 16. The process as claimed in any one of the claims 8-15, wherein the reactor is selected from fluidized bed reactor, moving bed reactor, fixed bed reactor, or rotating bed reactor. Date Re9ue/Date Received 2024-02-26

Description

1 CATALYST COMPOSITION FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN FIELD OF INVENTION [001] The present disclosure broadly relates to fuel production and particularly refers to catalytic decomposition of methane. 5 BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [002] The utilization of fossil fuels for energy production is one of the major contributing factors to excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Combustion of petroleum derivatives such as natural gas, petrol, and diesel emits huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere which is leading to alarming 10 anthropogenic climate change, ocean acidification and global warming. The International energy agency's world energy outlook 2012 (World energy outlook. IEA; 2012) expects growth of global energy requirement by more than one-third by the year 2035. On the other hand, the rapid decrease in fossil fuel stocks has placed a huge stress on the scientific community to devise alternative fuels derived from 15 sources other than petroleum in order to limit petroleum dependency for energy production. [003] Recently, hydrogen has attracted much attention as a green eco-friendly fuel, as it produces only water during its energy generation processes. Hydrogen is the lightest and the most abundantly available element in nature, but unfortunately, it is 20 not present in its purest form and hence, is treated as a secondary fuel. After producing hydrogen from other processes, it can easily be utilized to derive other environmentally friendly hydrogen based fuels, such as hydrogen enriched natural gas. [004] Also, commonly known as H-CNG, hydrogen enriched natural gas is a 25 mixture of 10-30 v/v% of hydrogen with 70-90 v/v% methane in compressed natural gas (CNG). This combination creates a balance between less flammable methane and highly flammable hydrogen gas. Deviation from 10-30 v/v % hydrogen enrichment causes significant changes in terms of fuel efficiency and emissions are observed. Thus, production of H-CNG requires the blending of hydrogen and CNG in fixed 30 ratios. Date Rei,:ue/Date Received 2023-03-20 2 [005] Although, CNG is readily available, hydrogen being a secondary fuel has to be produced using a variety of other electrochemical, thermochemical and photochemical technologies. Methane reforming is one such technique that is being widely used for H-CNG production. The process utilizes methane (the main 5 component of natural gas) for the partial production of hydrogen. Partial oxidation of methanol and methane are also well-known techniques for hydrogen production. However, most of the currently used techniques produce inevitable amounts of CO and CO2, which are not only harmful to the environment but also add to the production cost by including costly separation steps. 10 [006] In view of this, catalyst assisted methane decomposition (CMD) has attracted much attention from the researchers as an alternative route to produce hydrogen without generating any greenhouse gases. CMD has emerged as one of the most promising techniques as no COx separation is required from hydrogen and the cost of production of hydrogen is also quite low. However, this technique essentially 15 requires to use highly efficient catalyst materials capable of exhibiting catalytic activity for a longer period of time without getting degraded during the process. [007] Much of the efforts have been devoted for developing catalyst materials that can overcome the existing drawbacks. US8430937B2 discloses a series of catalysts comprising MFI type zeolite, metal modified MFI type zeolites and heterogenous 20 solid acid catalyst, wherein the metal is selected from Ga, Zn, In, Mo, W, Cr, Pt, Pd, Rh, Rm, Au, Ir. The catalyst is used for the conversion of methane to give combustible fuels. [008] Despite the tremendous progress the CMD process has achieved in this field, the present state of the art still needs a catalyst material that not only provides 25 efficient conversion of methane into hydrogen but is also economically feasible in terms of long-lasting, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [009] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a catalyst 30 composition comprising: (a) nickel; (b) at least one promoter selected from Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, Mg, Ce, Ti, Zr, Fe, Pd, Ag, Pt or combinations thereof; and (c) a support Date Rei,:ue/Date Received 2023-03-20 3 material, wherein, the nickel loading is in the range of 6-19 wt% and the at least one promoter loading is in the range of 0.2-5 wt% with respect to the support material. [0010) In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a process for preparing the catalyst composition comprising: (a) nickel; (b) at least one promoter 5 selected from Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, Mg, Ce, Ti, Zr, Fe, Pd, Ag, Pt, or combinations thereof; and ( c) a support material, wherein, the nickel loading is in the range of 6- 19 wt% and the at least one promoter loading is in the range of 0.2-5 wt% with respect to the support m