Chapter 9: Methane Dry Reforming

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is considered to be one of the most promising key technologies in the context of a successful carbon dioxide management, since CO₂ and CH₄ can effectively be utilised to obtain a syngas with a low H₂/CO ratio. CO-rich syngas mixtures are an important feedstock for various petrochemical products, such as formic acid, acetic acid, polycarbonates, phosgene, dimethyl ether and oxo products. However, the high endothermicity of the DRM process and the strong deactivation tendency of the DRM catalysts under industrially relevant reaction conditions, mainly driven by sintering and coking, make the industrial large-scale realisation of the DRM process challenging. To overcome these issues, research focussed on catalyst design strategies to prevent coking and sintering, either by targeting the design of the environment of active metal species or by the modification of specific properties of the support material.