Study on the Effect of Temperature on Methane Catalytic Cracking over Biochar-supported Fe

To achieve carbon neutrality, people are studying how to make fossil fuels cleaner. This study looks at how temperature affects the breakdown of methane. It used the catalyst made from biochar loaded with iron. Corn stalks were heated to make biochar which was used as the carrier. In order to obtain biochar with the high specific surface area and rich pore structures, the biochar was activated with chemicals. The catalyst was made by adding iron to the biochar using the soaking method. This iron biochar catalyst is used to study its effectiveness in catalyzing methane cracking. The biochar-supported Fe catalyst was studied for its effectiveness in catalyzing methane cracking at different temperatures (800°C, 850°C, 900°C, and 950°C). The results indicate that the higher the temperature, the better the methane conversion, with higher reaction efficiency and cumulative conversion levels. At 950°C, the catalyst exhibits the best performance, with a peak conversion rate of up to 85%, and it can still maintain a stable conversion rate of around 55% after prolonged reaction, yielding the total conversion of 57.6%. Raising the temperature can significantly promote the transformation of solid-phase products from highly blocking amorphous carbon to more ordered graphitized carbon. In addition, after the reaction, the specific surface area of catalyst decreases significantly, micropores disappear, but the average pore size increases noticeably. Different sizes and morphologies of carbon nanotube structures can form on the catalyst surface.