Wrocław, Poland, April 29-30, 2025   

 

David Farrusseng is a Research Director at CNRS and leads the Catalyst and Process Engineering team at IRCELYON, Lyon, France. He specializes in nanoporous materials and their applications in catalysis and separation, pioneering high-throughput methodologies for accelerated material discovery. Inspired by the potential of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) early in his career, he has focused on designing functional materials with atomic precision to optimize chemical transformations and purification. His research integrates computational and experimental approaches, bridging fundamental insights with practical applications. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles and holds 15 patents.


Lecture title:
Methane pyrolysis to hydrogen and carbon: Conventional vs. microwave heating

 

The conversion of CH4 into turquoise H2 and carbon represents a promising pathway towards decarbonised energy. The pyrolysis of biomethane is regarded as a technology with a negative carbon footprint, as the carbon source originates from biomass and the carbon is captured in a solid form. The objective of this study was to investigate methane pyrolysis in a fluidized bed of an iron-based catalyst, with a focus on comparing the efficacy of two heating methods: microwave and conventional thermal heating. At elevated temperatures, the methane conversion is remarkably efficient, accompanied by a considerable hydrogen yield and the sequestration of carbon into a turbostratic structure. In contrast to other catalytic technologies which evidence a catalyst deactivation by coking, our results show an apparent activation process. These findings will be discussed based on catalyst post-mortem characterisation and kinetic modelling.

Our results demonstrate that microwave heating achieves superior CH4 conversion and rate compared to conventional thermal heating. The origin of the higher conversion by microwave heating will be discussed

We believe that the direct catalytic methane pyrolysis in a fluidised bed could allow the production of CO2-free H2 and solid carbon with no need for costly gas separation units offering an environmentally friendly and economically viable alternative to traditional hydrogen production methods