Future Paradigm of 3D Printed Ni-Based Metal Organic Framework Catalysts for Dry Methane Reforming: Techno-economic and Environmental Analyses

Jia Ling Ong; Adrian Chun Minh Loy; Sin Yong Teng; Bing Shen How

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c06873

Future Paradigm of 3D Printed Ni-Based Metal Organic Framework Catalysts for Dry Methane Reforming: Techno-economic and Environmental Analyses

ACS Omega. 2022 Apr 26;7(18):15369-15384. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c06873. eCollection 2022 May 10.

Authors

Jia Ling Ong¹, Adrian Chun Minh Loy², Sin Yong Teng³, Bing Shen How¹

Affiliations

¹ Biomass Waste-to-Wealth Special Interest Group, Research Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Jalan Simpang Tiga, 93350 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
² Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
³ Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Abstract

Dry reforming of biogas is referred as an attractive path for sustainable H₂ production over decades. Meanwhile, in the Malaysian context, the abundance of palm oil mill effluent (POME) produced annually is deemed as a potential renewable source for renewable energy generation. Conventionally, nickel (Ni) is the most common catalyst used in the industrial-scale dry reforming of methane (DRM) to yield H₂, but it is subject to the drawbacks of sintering and deactivation after a long reaction time at high temperatures (>500 °C). Therefore, this work aims to provide an insight on the feasibility of the application of modified Ni-based catalysts in DRM, specifically in the economic and environmental aspects. From the benchmarking study of various Ni-based catalysts (e.g., bimetallic (Ni-Ce/Al₂O₃), alumina support (Ni/Al₂O₃), protonated titanate nanotube (Ni-HTNT), and unsupported), the Ni-MOF catalyst, notably, had proven its prominence in both economic and environmental aspects on the same basis of 10 tonnes of H₂ production. The MOF-based catalyst not only possessed a better economic performance (net present value 61.86%, 140%, and 563.08% higher than that of Ni-Ce/Al₂O_3, Ni/Al₂O₃, and Ni-HTNT) but also had relatively lower carbon emissions (13.18%, 20.09%, and 75.72% lower than that of Ni/Al₂O₃, Ni-HTNT, and unsupported Ni). This work also accounted for 3D printing technology for the mass production of Ni-MOF catalysts, where the net present value was 2 to 3% higher than that of the conventional production method. Additionally, sensitivity analysis showed that the H₂ price has the greatest impact on the feasibility of DRM as compared to other cost factors.