Natural gas is the cleanest traditional fossil fuel source because it produces relatively low amounts of pollutants like carbon dioxide – a potent greenhouse gas and major contributor to climate change.
Natural gas is the cleanest traditional fossil fuel source because it produces relatively low amounts of pollutants like carbon dioxide – a potent greenhouse gas and major contributor to climate change. But greenhouse gases and pollutants released by burning natural gas could be reduced even further with the help of advanced catalysts that help lower the temperature at which methane – the largest component of natural gas – is burned.
“The more efficiently we burn methane and the less energy we use to burn it, the less greenhouse gas and pollutants it produces. So, anything we can do to get this combustion temperature down is an environmental win,” said Reza Shahbazian-Yassar, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Shahbazian-Yassar and colleagues facilitated the development of a cutting edge “Swiss Army knife” catalyst made up of 10 different elements – each of which on its own has the ability to reduce the combustion temperature of methane – plus oxygen. This unique catalyst can bring the combustion temperature of methane down by about half – from above 1400 degrees Kelvin down to 600 to 700 degrees Kelvin.
Their findings are reported in the journal Nature Catalysis.
Read more at University of Illinois at Chicago
Image: Reza Shahbazian-Yassar, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the UIC College of Engineering and Zhennan Huang, a Ph.D. student in Shahbazian-Yassar's lab and co-first author of the paper. (Credit: Photo: Jenny Fontaine/UIC)
