Sustainable shale gas conversion processes: Research efforts towards capturing and utilizing CO2

Abstract The high availability of shale gas has spurred the interest for improving the sustainability and expanding the share of its conversion processes to valuable chemicals. Hydrogen, one of the high-volume raw materials in the chemical and refining sector, heavily depends on natural gas. Almost 50% of hydrogen worldwide production comes from methane steam reforming process. Process Intensification by combining reaction and separation together in a single step can contribute to the simplification and eventually to lowering C-footprint of the complex and high energy intensive steam reforming process. Sorption enhanced reforming with insitu CO2 capture presents improved heat balance in the reformer but the endothermic sorbent regeneration impedes the implementation of the process. Sorption enhanced chemical looping methane reforming is a novel alternative for pure hydrogen production in a single step, combining chemical looping steam reforming (CL-SMR) with insitu CO2 capture. Key for successful implementation of this concept is the development of high temperature sorbent and oxygen carrier materials with high activity and stability under multiple cycles. Utilization of the chemically inert and environmentally hazardous CO2 presents many technical and scientific challenges. The mild oxidation ability makes CO2 a potential alternative for replacing O2 in selective oxidation processes. Ethane dehydrogenation to ethylene is one route which can be benefited by the CO2 presence. CO2 contributes to the dehydrogenation reaction with simultaneous conversion to CO, a versatile raw material for chemicals production.  The role of catalyst in CO2-assisted dehydrogenation reaction is dominant. In this presentation research activities in development of CaO-based sorbents and NiO-based oxygen carriers as well as proof of concept of the two-looping process for hydrogen production with insitu CO2 capture will be presented. In addition, efforts to develop FeOx-based catalysts and explore their performance in oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane in the presence of CO2 will be discussed. Biography Dr. Angeliki A. Lemonidou is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Director of the Petrochemical Technology Laboratory. She got BSc in Chemistry and PhD in Chemical Engineering both with honors from Aristotle University. Since 1992 she has served the same Department from many positions as Lecturer, Assistant and Associate Professor. She has developed long collaborations with universities and research centers in Greece and also with international universities, such as the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany. Prof. Lemonidou is collaborating faculty member of the Chemical Process Energy Resources Institute (CPERI/CERTH). She is Deputy Director of the newly founded Center of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation of Aristotle University. Prof. Lemonidou is Vice President of the European Federation of Catalysis Societies. Among other activities as member of editorial boards of peer reviewed journals, she serves as Associate Editor of the Chemical Engineering Journal. Prof. Lemonidou’s research activities are in the area of catalysis and reaction engineering. Topics currently studied are the selective oxidation of lower alkanes, the valorization of biomass derived oxygenates through hydrodeoxygenation, the sustainable production of hydrogen through advanced steam reforming of natural gas, the CO₂ capture and the thermochemical heat storage. Expertise lies in the preparation of nanomaterials via advanced preparation techniques, the structural and morphological characterization with advanced techniques, as well as detailed kinetic and mechanistic studies of materials under reaction conditions. Her work has been published in numerous articles in peer reviewed journals has an impact in the field of h=45.