Researchers Develop Super-Efficient Methane Catalyst

A team of researchers from the U.S., Italy and Spain say they have created a material that oxidizes methane 30 times more efficiently than existing catalysts.

The super catalyst could help boost the use of engines and turbines that burn natural gas by reducing their emissions. As a greenhouse gas, unburned methane is 20 times as damaging as carbon dioxide.

The researchers note that catalyzing methane requires temperatures of 600 C-700 C, a range hot enough to damage conventional catalysts typically materials made of palladium nanoparticles deposited on cerium oxide.

The scientists reversed the traditional construction. Their material surrounds palladium particles with porous shells of cerium oxide. They then deposited the tiny spheres on a hydrophobic surface made of aluminum oxide to prevent them from clumping together at high temperatures.

The resulting core-shell nanostructure, which uses no more palladium than traditional catalysts, completely burned methane at only 400 C, according to the researchers. Their report notes that the key to effective methane oxidation is a catalyst that is very active at such relatively low temperatures but also durable enough to withstand 50% temperature spikes.

The team includes members from Pennsylvania University, Spain's Universidad de Cadiz and Italy's National Research Council and University of Trieste. The group reports their results in the current issue of Science.