Light hydrocarbons emission treatment with MgO-CaO

Abstract

Most current energy requirements for electricity generation, industry and transportation are supplied from fossil fuels  by  thermal  combustion  processes,  which  generates  emissions  of  gases  containing  light  hydrocarbons  such  as  methane,  ethane  and  propane.  Among  them,  methane  is  a  major  promoter  of  the  greenhouse  effect,  many  times  more  harmful  than  CO2,  furthermore  it  is  the  hydrocarbon  more  difficult  to  oxidize  due  to  its high chemical stability. Among the technologies developed to control those emissions, catalytically supported thermal  combustion  has  been  gaining  interest.  The  best  results  have  been  achieved  with  noble  metals  and  simple or combined metal oxides which remain having difficulties with thermal stability and high cost. This project focused on the development and testing of a material based on magnesium oxide doped with calcium oxide, which shown to be low cost, active and thermally stable to promote the complete oxidation of natural gas (3.0%), LPG (0.5%) and mixtures thereof in the presence of CO2 (10%) and excess oxygen below the lower limit of flammability. The presence of LPG facilitated the combustion of natural gas while the presence of CO2reduced the activity of the material for the hydrocarbons oxidation but decreased CO emissions.