Hydrogen production from natural gas in high-temperature membrane reactors: Advanced catalysis from atoms to processes

The project deals with a development of a catalyst system in a high temperature hydrogen permeable membrane reactor, enabling production of hydrogen and CO2 simultaneously from natural gas. The active, stable and cheap catalysts will be developed by new c atalyst design through the combination of high quality experimental work, mechanistic understanding, computational modeling of catalytic processes, detailed catalyst characterization, as well as novel synthesis methods to control the active site architect ures. The computational chemistry will be used to screen the catalyst candidates. The project will also focus on an optimization of the hydrogen yield per reactor volume by means of optimization of the interface between the catalyst layer and the membrane surfaces. The project will be performed through an international collaboration between MIT and NTNU as well as Norwegian industries. Eduction of two Ph.D students and a post doc is one of the objectives of the project.