Photoelectrochemical abatement of methane waste with simultaneous energy recovery.

Methane has recently been under attention as the atmospheric methane concentration is increasing more rapidly than initially expected. As methane is the second largest contributor to the enhanced greenhouse effect, this increases the urge for sustainable methane mitigation strategies in contrast to the current handling of methane emissions (e.g. venting). In this project a sustainable methane mitigation strategy, namely photoelectrochemical (PEC) methane degradation, is presented, which has not been studied before. In a PEC cell both mineralization of methane (at the photo-anode) and hydrogen evolution (at the cathode) are combined in a single device that runs solely on (solar) light as the energy input. First, the PEC cell will be optimized by selecting the best performing photo-anode material using the knowledge attained at the Wuhan University of Technology (China), also studying less conventional materials, nanostructures and synthesis strategies. As methane-rich waste streams are often gas mixtures, the influence of different common chemical compounds will be investigated both on overall cell performance, as well as in-situ. Finally, the effect of different reaction conditions will also be studied, as these factors are known to strongly influence photodriven processes. In summary, this project will allow us to evaluate the promise of PEC-technology for energy-efficient abatement of methane waste, while providing valuable new insight into the reaction mechanisms.

Keywords:METHANE, ENERGY RECOVERY, PHOTOCATALYSIS

Disciplines:Sustainable chemistry, Catalysis and reacting systems engineering, Chemical product design and formulation, General chemical and biochemical engineering, Process engineering, Separation and membrane technologies, Transport phenomena, Other (bio)chemical engineering