How Does the Surface Structure of Ni-Fe Nanoalloys Control Carbon Formation During Methane Steam/Dry Reforming?

The increasing energy consumption creates the need to investigate new routes for the utilization of the available resources, like natural gas and biogas, to produce fuels and chemicals. Natural gas, which primarily consists of methane (CH4), has an actual market price of 1.9 USD/GJ. This makes CH4 one of the most affordable carbon feedstocks in the world. Direct conversion of CH4 into chemicals results in low yields due to the high C―H bond dissociation energy (436 kJ/mol). As a result, CH4 is mainly converted indirectly, by reforming it to syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO, as an intermediate step. Syngas is a key building block with many downstream applications, as it is used in a number of synthesis processes of a wide range of chemicals and fuels. Most of the produced syngas is used for the synthesis of ammonia for fertilizers and for hydrogen production, which is exploited in refining processes, while the “gas-to-liquid” routes (i.e., Fischer-Tropsch) for fuel production account for ~ 8% consumption.