Sabatier-based CO2-methanation by catalytic conversion

The catalytic conversion of CO2 is an important component for the reintegration of secondary products like CO2 or H-2 into the energy supply. An example is the power to gas concept with a conversion of CO2 into CH4. The CO2 is transferred into a carrier of chemical energy, with the possibility to feed the produced CH4 into the existing network of natural gas. At temperatures of around 350 A degrees C, hydrogenation of CO2 to CH4 is possible by the Sabatier reaction CO2 + 4H(2) -> CH4 + 2H(2)O. One prerequisite for efficient kinetics of the Sabatier reaction is the application and optimization of catalysts. The focus of catalyst development is given to their performance under the conditions to be expected in the special application. As a part of the project Geoenergy-Research (GeoEn), we address questions related to the catalytic utilization of CO2 produced in the course of the oxyfuel combustion of lignite. In this contribution, we report on the experimental setup in laboratory scale, which enables an advanced characterization of the catalytic performance, including thermodesorption measurements at atmospheric pressure in order to determine the amount of adsorbed CO2 under real conditions. We also show data for activation energies, the catalytic performance as function of temperature and the long time stability of a commercial Ru-based catalyst.