Researchers from UPC, the University of Udine (Italy) and ALBA Synchrotron have discovered a palladium and platinum catalyst that is the first to eliminate methane emissions from traffic and other human activities and reduce global warming. The study was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is promoted as a clean alternative to coal and oil-based fuels, and its use has risen sharply in recent years. As a result, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled compared to pre-industrial times.
Methane’s warming potential is 34 times greater than carbon dioxide over 100 years and 86 times greater than carbon dioxide over 20 years. It is the second largest source of global warming. According to the Paris Agreement, keeping global warming below 2°C requires reducing not only carbon dioxide emissions, but also methane emissions. Human activities account for two-thirds of methane emissions. The rest comes from natural sources.
According to a United Nations report, most anthropogenic methane emissions come from fossil fuels, waste and livestock. Reducing methane emissions could limit global warming in the short term, buying us time to end CO2-induced warming for good.
One of the most effective ways to remove methane is to use catalysts that accelerate air oxidation. For some time, the best methane removal catalysts have used palladium nanoparticles supported on a ceramic oxide. However, they stop working in the presence of water vapor, which is always present when natural gas is burned. What solution? Platinum atoms are added to palladium nanoparticles.
This was studied by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the Technical University of Barcelona (UPC), the University of Udine (Italy) and the ALBA synchrotron. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, was led by Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow Nuria Jimenez Divens and Jodi Lorca-Pique, now vice president of research. They are all part of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and the UPC Institute of Energy Technologies, part of the East Barcelona Engineering School (EEBE) at the Diagonal Besos campus.
The researchers collated data obtained from experiments carried out at three different channels of the ALBA synchrotron to study the active sites of the catalyst during operation: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption. Using synchrotron light, they discovered that the oxidation states of palladium and platinum play a key role in methane removal, and that catalysts prepared by mechanochemical methods are more active and completely water-resistant.
This type of catalyst, patented and by far the most effective in the world for methane removal, can be found in catalytic converters for internal combustion engine vehicles and in domestic natural gas boilers and turbines.
Post time: Apr-30-2024