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

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

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

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

irradiating the methane gas under a negative pressure using microwave irradiation at a selected microwave power to form a methane plasma;

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

controlling the flow of methane gas and the microwave power to produce a product gas comprising about 10% to 30% hydrogen by volume, about 70% to 90% methane by volume and a solid carbon product comprising the fibrous carbon.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalyst has a composition of Ni81Al, Ni93Al, Ni77Cu16Al, Ni54Cu27Al or Ni83Mg6Al.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the irradiating 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 catalyst.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the microwave power is from about 70 W to 140 W and the selected flow rate of the methane gas is about 120 ml/minute.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising pretreating the catalyst with a hydrogen plasma prior to the directing step at a second microwave power greater than the selected microwave power.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the directing step is performed in a tube reactor made of a microwave transparent material.

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

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the methane gas comprises pure methane or natural gas.

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

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;

forming a methane plasma using microwave irradiation of a methane gas under a negative pressure of from 20 mmHg to 200 mmHg, at a flow rate of 120 ml/minute and at a microwave power of from 70-140 W;

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

controlling a flow of the methane plasma and the microwave power to produce a product gas comprising about 70% to 90% unreacted methane and about 10% to 30% hydrogen, and a solid carbon product comprising the fibrous carbon.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the catalyst has the composition Ni81Al.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the forming the methane plasma 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 catalyst.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising processing the product gas to recover substantially pure hydrogen.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising flowing the product gas under a vacuum pressure through a Pd/Ag membrane to recover substantially pure hydrogen.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the microwave power is less than 120 W.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the negative pressure is from about 20 mmHg to about 200 mmHg, and the microwave power is from about 70 W to 160 W.

16. The method of claim 9 further comprising pretreating the catalyst in a hydrogen plasma prior to the directing step.

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

providing a tube reactor having microwave transparent walls in flow communication with a methane source configured to provide a flow of methane through the tube reactor;

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;

pretreating the catalyst in a hydrogen plasma using microwave irradiation at a first microwave power directed through the wall of the reactor and the holder;

irradiating the methane using microwave irradiation at a second microwave power less than the first microwave power to produce a flow of methane plasma;

directing the methane plasma over the catalyst; and

producing a solid carbon product comprising fibrous carbon and a product gas by converting at least some of the methane to hydrogen by reaction of the methane plasma in contact with the catalyst, the product gas comprising about 10-30% hydrogen and about 70-90% methane.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the microwave power is from about 70 W to 140 W and a flow rate of the methane is about 120 ml/minute.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the negative pressure is from about 20 mmHg to about 200 mmHg.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the methane plasma comprises CH 4 .

21. The method of claim 17 wherein during the producing step reactions occur on the catalyst between hyrodcarbons and radicals to produce hydrogen and the fibrous carbon.

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

23. The method of claim 17 further comprising flowing the product gas under a vacuum pressure through a Pd/Ag membrane to recover substantially pure hydrogen.