A New Energy-Saving Catalytic System: Carbon Dioxide Activation by a Metal/Carbon Catalyst

Abstract

The conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals is an attractive method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to produce sustainable chemicals. However, the thermodynamic stability of CO2 means that a lot of energy is required for its conversion into chemicals. Here, we suggest a new catalytic system with an alternative heating system that allows minimal energy consumption during CO2 conversion. In this system, electrical energy is transferred as heat energy to the carbon-supported metal catalyst. Fast ramping rates allow high operating temperatures (T-app=250 degrees C) to be reached within 5min, which leads to an 80-fold decrease of energy consumption in methane reforming using CO2 (DRM). In addition, the consumed energy normalized by time during the DRM reaction in this current-assisted catalysis is sixfold lower (11.0kJmin(-1)) than that in conventional heating systems (68.4kJmin(-1)).