Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Effect of additives on the properties of nickel molybdenum carbides for the tri-reforming of methane

Significance Statement

In many chemical industries, syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gases, plays a crucial role as an important feedstock for numerous desirable chemical processes such as hydroformylation, ammonia synthesis and the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. There are three eminent methane processes that have been widely used for the production of syngas, namely: the partial oxidation of methane, stream reforming of methane and dry reforming of methane. Recently, combination of the three reactions in a reactor (tri-reforming of methane) has attracted considerable attention due to the many desirable attributes associated with it.

Nickel catalysts have already been highlighted as the most promising desirable catalysts for the tri-reforming process. However, the stability of the nickel catalysts at elevated temperatures and coke generation are the main obstacles hampering their widespread application. Consequently, transition metal carbides, such as molybdenum carbide or tungsten mono-carbide, have been proposed as potential substitutes for noble metals due to their low cost and superior performance in the methane reforming process.

Researchers led by professor Hanbo Zou from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Guangzhou University in China investigated the effect of additives on the attributes of nickel and molybdenum carbides for the tri-reforming of methane gas. Their main objective was to synthesize a series of promoted nickel molybdenum carbides and observe the effects of the varying additives on their catalytic performance for the tri- reforming of methane gas. Their work is now published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

The team found out that the presence of nickel species in the nickel-molybdenum series carbides stimulated the dissociation of methane and supplied the active carbon for the carburization process. Cerium and cobalt additives were observed to deteriorate the activities of the nickel-molybdenum carbides due to the larger particle size. Magnesium additive was observed to favor the coke generation. They then noted that the addition of potassium suppressed the carburization process of molybdenum oxide species and caused the phase transformation of active γ-aluminum oxide to less active θ- aluminum oxide. They realized that the oxidation of carbidic species and the agglomeration of small particles and the carbon deposition decreased the catalytic activities of nickel molybdenum series carbides for the tri-reforming of methane.

Doping the nickel-molybdenum series with different additives has presented a platform for thorough analysis of each additive element individually. Of most concern is that the lathanum additive which has been seen to facilitate the topotactic transformation of the oxidic precursors and refine the particles. The aggregation of the fine particles, reduction of carbidic species and the carbon deposition would all deteriorate the activities of the nickel molybdenum series carbides. The effects of each individual doping additive are therefore critical for the realization of better tri-reforming of methane process.

 

 

About The Author

Hanbo Zou, associate professor in Guangzhou University. My research interests are developing the transition metal nitrides, carbides confined in the mesoporous sieve, carbon nanotubes for novel heterogeneous catalysis. I have explored the use of advanced inorganic materials, the self-assemblies of nanoparticles and nanocomposites for the production of hydrogen and the renewable and clean energy research. Research work involves chemical synthesis, testing and detailed characterization of novel solid state materials.

About The Author

Shengzhou Chen, professor in Guangzhou University. I have engaged in electrocatalysis research for more than twenty years. I have explored hydrogen and methanol oxidation electrocatalysts, technologies for hydrogen generation and so on.

Recently, the major research fields focus on low-platinum and non-platinum supported ORR electrocatalysts and supercapacitors，controllable preparation of ternary transition metal nitride and its electrocatalytic activity of oxygen electroredution, controllable preparation of micro nanofibers-aerogels flexible material and the mechanism of heat transfer. I have published more than 30 scientific papers in IJHE, Applied Surface Science, and etc.

Reference

Hanbo Zou, Shengzhou Chen, Jiangnan Huang, Zhaohui Zhao. Effect of additives on the properties of nickel molybdenum carbides for the tri-reforming of methane. International journal of hydrogen energy volume 41(2016) pages 16842-16850.

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Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Structural dynamics of innovation networks funded by the European Union in the context of systemic innovation of the renewable energy sector

Significance Statement

In a recent article of Kang and Hwang (2016) which was published in Energy Policy, examined whether related innovation activities transforms into a systemic direction when considering the European Union funded international networks while also checking whether the European Union has contributed to establishing an effective ecosystem for systemic renewable energy innovation.

Several structural properties as indicators were used to evaluate the systemic innovation conditions of a network due to its dual dimensions as appropriate measurement were suggested. Two network properties; the structural closure and structural holes diagnosed the overall network structure with respect to market exploitation and technology exploration, measuring the overall degree of connectivity.

The other indication applied two properties namely; the hierarchy and disassortativity in order to evaluate interoperability between technology exploration and market exploitation. The use of the hierarchy with a core-periphery structure reveals the heterogeneity in relations of capable organization across the network. The disassortativity property showed the tendency of the nodes in the network to connect one another with those who exhibit dissimilar degrees.

For effective combination of openness strategies for network positioning, the authors regarded the country boundary as a condition for judging organization openness to external partnerships provided that renewable energy innovation depends on geographical factors, market readiness and institutional schemes. A two-step approach was also implemented to determine whether an organization has more relationship with foreign or domestic firms and later measured by use of an external-internal index and secondly, correlation between external-internal index while checking whether the actors are in line with systematic innovation in the network based on their openness strategies.

The authors also employed framework programs and Intelligent Energy Europe sub-program for studying correlation between technology exploration and market exploitation.

When observing the overall network structures, both actual and random networks in period I (2003-2007) and period II (2008-2013) were similar in average path lengths indicating small-world tendencies but a larger overall clustering coefficient in actual networks was found. Higher constraint were also found in actual networks in both periods compared to random networks depicting a major relational redundancies of the renewable energy innovation networks while structural holes were missing.

The renewable energy innovation network under the European Union which follows the small-world model direction had a diminished structural hole assembly as overall connectivity increases which is characterized by a high centralization and segmentation.

The hierarchy in both actual and random network was significant with cohesiveness of core organizations but the degree distribution in actual network was stronger compared to random network. A greater degree of correlations between that of focal length and its direct neighbors was more positive for actual networks compared to random networks which confirms presence of an assortative structure.

The core-periphery model when compared to the random models can be likened to a systemic renewable energy innovation under the European Union’s program. The core and periphery structures are dense and assortative but less segmented. This means that the core and peripheries are not effectively combined which can be related to the dissociation between the explorative and exploitation phase for systemic renewable energy innovation.

This study shows an increasing number of organizations have appropriate openness strategies based on their network positions which proposes its capability for systemic renewable energy innovation after a period of time.

  

About The Author

Dr. Jongwoon Hwang
Head of Smart Convergence Group, KIST Europe 

Dr. Jongwoon Hwang is Head of Smart convergence group of KIST Europe. He joined KIST Europe in 2000 and is in charge of international cooperation especially between the EU and Korea.

He has involved in many national and international projects such as FP7 KESTCAP, FP7 KORRIDOR, FP7 KONNECT, Development of smart energy monitoring system etc. He also leaded studies such as Sustainable Waste Management Strategy for Green Printing Industry Business of FP7 ECO-INNOVERA and strategic global regulation compliance for Samsung.

He got his doctoral degree in information and communication management system at Technical University of Berlin in Germany with the topic ‘Architecture model for the SOA-based IT-services in the power supply industry’ and has relevant and interdisciplinary experiences in Science and Technology Cooperation.  

 

About The Author

Ms Moon Jung Kung
PhD candidate, TU Berlin, Innovation Economics

Moon Jung Kang holds a Diplom degree in Environmental Science from Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany. Since 2011, she has been doing the Ph.D. study on “International Networks for Promoting the Eco-innovation in the Era of Climate Change” at Technical University of Berlin, Chair of Innovation Economics in Germany. She has published several SCI papers as well as many academic articles based on data from OECD, Eurostat, Clean Development Mechanisms, EU’s R&I programs (FP, IEE, and Horizon2020), and EU’s Community Innovation Survey on eco-innovation.

Moon Jung Kang was a research scientist at Smart Convergence Group, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Europe located in Saarbruecken, Germany where she worked from 2007 to 2016. At KIST Europe, she participated in a number of European and Korean projects on strategy & policy developments in the fields of eco-innovation as well as international S&T cooperation between the EU and Korea.  

Journal Reference

Moon Jung Kang^1, 2, Jongwoon Hwang². Structural dynamics of innovation networks funded by the European Union in the context of systemic innovation of the renewable energy sector, Energy Policy 96 (2016) 471-490.

Show Affiliations

1. Chair of Innovation Economics, Technical University of Berlin, Müller-Breslau-Straße 15, 10623 Berlin, Germany.
2. Industry and Technology Strategy Department, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Europe, Campue E 71 Uni des Saarlandes, 66123 Saarbruecken, Germany.

 

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