Method and system for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel using microwave assisted methane decomposition on catalyst

1. A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:

providing a flow of methane gas;

preparing a catalyst comprising NiO and Al 2 O 3 by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor from an aqueous solution;

heating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power;

directing the flow of methane gas over the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to fibrous carbon and hydrogen; and

controlling the flow of the methane gas and the microwave power to produce a solid carbon product comprised of the fibrous carbon and a product gas comprising about 20% to 30% hydrogen by volume and about 70% to 80% methane by volume.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalyst comprises particles having a diameter of from 74 μm to 140 μm.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalyst has a composition of Ni8Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83Mg6Al.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the flow of the methane gas is about 120 ml/minute and the microwave power is from about 150 watts to 300 watts.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising pretreating the catalyst prior to the heating step by directing a flow of a hydrogen plasma over the catalyst for a selected time period.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the aqueous solution comprises nitrates and sodium carbonate.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the directing step is performed with the catalyst placed on a microwave transparent holder having a plurality of openings configured to allow the flow of methane gas to pass through the catalyst.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising processing the product gas to recover substantially pure hydrogen.

9. A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:

providing a flow of methane gas at a selected flow rate;

preparing a catalyst by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor such that the catalyst has a composition of Ni8Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83M6Al where Ni comprises NiO, Al comprises Al 2 O 3 , Cu comprises CuO and Mg comprises MgO;

heating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power;

directing the flow of methane gas over the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to fibrous carbon and hydrogen; and

controlling the preparing step, controlling the flow of methane gas, and controlling the microwave power to produce a product gas comprising about 70% to 80% unreacted methane and about 20% to 30% hydrogen.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the heating step is performed by placing the catalyst on a microwave transparent holder having a plurality of openings configured to allow the flow of methane gas around the particles.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the catalyst has the composition Ni81Al.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the catalyst comprises particles having a diameter of from 74 μm to 140 μm.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising placing the catalyst on a holder having a plurality of openings configured to allow the flow of methane gas over the catalyst.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising pretreating the catalyst by directing a hydrogen plasma over the catalyst for a selected time period.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the pretreating step is performed at a microwave power of about 160 watts for at least one minute.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the flow of the methane gas is about 120 ml/minute and the microwave power is from about 150 watts to 300 watts.

17. A method for producing a hydrogen enriched fuel comprising:

providing a tube reactor having a reaction chamber with microwave transparent walls in flow communication with a methane source;

preparing a catalyst by coprecipitation of a nickel based catalyst precursor such that the catalyst has a composition of Ni81Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83Mg6Al where Ni comprises NiO, Al comprises Al 2 O 3 , Cu comprises CuO and Mg comprises MgO;

placing the catalyst in the reaction chamber on a microwave transparent holder;

providing a microwave generator;

pretreating the catalyst by directing a hydrogen plasma over the catalyst for a selected time period;

irradiating the catalyst using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power of the microwave generator;

directing a flow of methane gas through the reaction chamber into contact with the catalyst to convert at least some of the methane gas to hydrogen gas and solid carbon; and

controlling the preparing step, controlling the irradiating step, and controlling the directing step to produce a product gas comprising about 70% to 80% unreacted methane and about 20% to 30% of the hydrogen gas.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the flow of the methane gas is about 120 ml/minute, the microwave power is from about 150 watts to 330 watts and the catalyst is heated to a temperature between about 600 ° C. to 700 ° C.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the catalyst comprises particles having a diameter of from 74 μm to 140 μm.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the placing step comprises placing the catalyst on a holder having a plurality of openings configured to allow the flow of methane gas over the catalyst.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the solid carbon comprises fibrous carbon.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising processing the product gas to recover substantially pure hydrogen.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the processing step comprises flowing the product gas under a vacuum pressure through a Pd/Ag membrane.