Catalytic combustion provides us an efficient approach for the utilization and mitigation of methane, the major component of natural gas as well as an important greenhouse gas in global warming. From the research of catalytic combustion of methane, better understandings as well as solutions to the current methane-related problems can be obtained. This study investigates lean methane combustion on palladium-based catalysts. Catalysts activities were tested through ignition and extinction experiments. Several pretreatments and their influence were studied. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were used as characterization tools for the catalysts. It was found that after being reduced, catalysts had stable and excellent abilities for methane conversion. However, these abilities were strongly compromised by additional water in the feeds. XRD results, combined with other testing results, implied that reduction produced the most active samples, while INAA revealed the real Pd concentrations of these catalysts. / Chemical Engineering

No description available.

Mänsklig aktivitet har ökat utsläppen av växthusgaser i atmosfären så mycket att det påverkat klimatet och spås förändra det mer om inte åtgärder vidtas för att utsläppen ska minksa och helst upphöra helt. För att lindra effekterna av koldioxid, som är den växthusgas med störst påverkan, kan skogen spela en stor roll. För att veta vilka åtgärder som är lämpliga krävs förståelse för hur olika ingrepp i skogen påverkar dess upptag och utsläpp. Under några decennier har koncentrationer och flöden av växthusgaser mätts med hjälp av fasta master. De är dock för få för att kunna generalisera resultaten över hela landskap. Här undersöks hur teknikläget för mobila mätmetoder ser ut idag via en litteratur- och surveyundersökning. Samtliga respondenter är hoppfulla och tror att det bara är en tidsfråga innan tekniken finns för att kunna använda sig av små drönare för att kunna genomföra mätningar av gaser över skogsmark. Ett koncept för en pilotstudie har tagits fram där koldioxidkoncentrationer ska mätas.

SiC is a hard man-made material and has emerged as an excellent material for a wide range of applications which are exposed to extreme conditions such as high temperatures and harsh chemical environments. These applications range from SiC being used as an abrasive, to a refractory material, to a semiconductor material for high power and high frequency electronic devices. The properties of the material for each application is different, with the semiconductor grade material for electronic devices being the most refined. SiC, with its excellent thermal properties and high resistance to harsh chemical environments, lends itself to being an ideal support for catalyst systems. Various characterisation & analysis techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography (GC) are used in this thesis to investigate the suitability of single crystal SiC for high temperature catalytic systems. Low temperature oxidation of methane was used to investigate the catalytic activity of: Porous and standard 4H-SiC with and without Pd Porous and Standard 6H-SiC with and without Pd. Nanocrystalline Beta-SiC powder with and without Pd. Part of the samples were impregnated with Pd using Palladium Nitrate (Pd (NO3)2) which is a common precursor for Pd. Activation treatments which were investigated were oxidation and reduction. Oxidation was generally better in activating the catalyst, as was expected, since the PdO phase is known to be more active in oxidising methane. A mixed set of Pd and PdO were observed by SEM and EDS which were the main characterisation techniques used to analyze the structure of the catalysts before and after the reaction. The Beta-SiC showed by far the best activity which could be attributed to the micro-crystalline powder format in which it was used, where as all other catalysts studied here were derived from crushed wafer pieces. Type II porous 4H-SiC was another of the samples which registered impressive results, vis-à-vis catalytic activity.