Methanation

The methanation is a chemical reaction that converts the carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide into methane. The reaction of carbon dioxide to methane is also referred to as a Sabatier process. It was in 1902 by Paul Sabatier and J. B. Send Ersen discovered.

Reaction

In this reaction, carbon monoxide reacts at temperatures of 300-700 ° C with hydrogen to methane and water. This reaction is exothermic, however, must be accelerated by a catalyst. This usually used nickel catalysts which are improved with various promoters and stabilizers, such as alumina and zirconia, but it has also the catalytic effect of ruthenium examined.

Reaction with carbon monoxide

Reaction with carbon dioxide

Applications

Large-scale technology

The methanation is not used at the present time (2011) for the large scale extraction of methane, since it can be obtained cheaply from natural gas. However, it plays a role in the removal of carbon monoxide traces that function in some processes, as a catalyst poison. This is, for example, in ammonia synthesis in the Haber- Bosch process, the case in which the hydrogen used must be as low in carbon monoxide. For gases with high CO content can be obtained by methanation synthetic natural gas.

Solar or wind energy methanation

A technical application of methanation with expected increasing importance is the production of wind, solar gas, which is obtained after previous water electrolysis using renewable energy methane as synthetic natural gas.

Analysis

In the field of gas chromatography, the methanation is used to demonstrate single analytes with detectors that have advantages in specific applications, for example because they are cheaper or higher detection sensitivities allow a similar detection method, which supply their needs without a chemical conversion of the analytes.

In practice, the analysis of this mixture is first separated in the chromatographic separation column as individual components, and then reduced in a methanation to methane. The reduction takes place in a heated, catalyst-filled capillary column whose output is directly linked to the detector. For example, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde can be determined as the methane with a flame ionization detector, which is about 500 times more sensitive than a thermal conductivity detector, to which the substances were detected even without reduction.