Conversion of biogas to syngas via catalytic carbon dioxide reforming reactions: An overview of thermodynamic aspects, catalytic design, and reaction kinetics

Abstract

Biogas production has continuously increased worldwide during the last decades. Nowadays, heat, electricity, and biomethane production are the main utilization of biogas at large-scale industrial processes. The research and development on biogas valorization is currently related to synthesis gas production via reforming process, since syngas allows obtaining various chemicals and fuels of high-added value. However, biogas reforming is a complex process, which implies various reactions in parallel, and needs high temperature (>800 °C) to obtain high methane conversion. The development of a highly-performing catalyst, which must be active, selective, thermally stable, and resistant to solid carbon formation on its surface, is crucial. This chapter is devoted to an update of the thermodynamic aspect of biogas reforming under different conditions. This chapter also reviews recent significant works related to catalyst design as well as kinetic and mechanistic studies of biogas reforming processes.