Catalytic methanation is a chemical reaction where methane, also known as synthetic natural gas, is produced from hydrogen and carbon dioxide (or monoxide). This process represents one of the most promising solutions for long-term energy storage and CO2 emission reduction, but its implementation in existing energy systems is still affected by low efficiency. To this end, intensive research is taking place to improve catalytic reactors and catalysts. This thesis contributes to the latter by analysing the performance of the catalytic conversion over the alumina-supported nickel(II) oxide catalyst at different reactor temperatures and reactant gas mixtures. By using an infrared camera and gas chromatograph, it was found that as the proportion of methane in the product gas mixture increases, so do the temperature gradients in the methanation cell. The analysed catalyst showed the highest conversion efficiency of the reactants into methane at 360 – 370 °C. The results show that IR thermography is a suitable method for evaluating the temperature distribution on the catalyst’s surface and for indirect determination of the methanation process efficiency.
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