The Effects of Textural Properties and Surface Chemistry of Activated Carbon on Its Catalytic Performance in Methane Decomposition for Hydrogen Production

In this article, catalytic decomposition of methane for hydrogen production over several domestic commercial activated carbons was performed at a fixed bed reactor. The effects of the textural properties and surface chemistry of the activated carbon on its catalytic performance in methane decomposition were investigated; furthermore, the correlation between these properties and the catalytic performance is studied as well. The results show that the initial rate of methane decomposition has no correlation to the surface area of the activated carbon, which indicates that only a portion of the entire surface is active for methane decomposition. On the other hand, the correlation between the total amount of methane conversion during the process and the pore volume of the activated carbon is nearly linear, because the bigger pore volume can accommodate more carbon deposition from methane decomposition, while it has no relation to the micro pore volume of the activated carbon. The oxygenated functional groups of the activated carbon mainly decompose to CO and CO2 during the temperature-programmed desorption process and the concentration of these groups has a certain relation to the initial rate of methane decomposition.