Effetto dei promotori su catalizzatori a base di ferro nella reazione di cracking catalitico del metano per la produzione di idrogeno

Hydrogen is one of the most used molecules by many industries for a variety of applications. The majority of hydrogen is used for chemical production (ammonia synthesis and methanol synthesis) and fuels hydrotreatments. Steam reforming is the most frequently applied process to produce hydrogen today (grey hydrogen). This process is related to substantial process-related CO2 emissions. To reduce CO2 emissions in atmosphere it is necessary to develop new CO2-free processes and to reduce environmental impact of hydrogen production. One of these processes is catalytic methane decomposition (turquoise hydrogen). The co-product of this process is solid carbon, which is responsible for catalyst deactivation, so it is necessary to study catalysts which increase hydrogen production and retard deactivation. The subject of this work is to study the effect of promoters on Fe-based catalysts to improve catalytic performances and maximize hydrogen productivity. Catalysts before reaction have been characterized by H2-TPR, XRD and N2-adsorption/desorption to evaluate the influence of promoters on chemical and physical characteristics of the catalysts. Catalysts after reaction have been characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, and Raman spectroscopy to identify the type of carbonaceous phase co-produced. The quality of the CNTs and the hydrogen yield are more related to the reaction conditions than to the presence of a promoter.