Preparation of Fe-Doped Carbon Catalyst for Methane Decomposition to Hydrogen

Fe-doped carbon catalysts were prepared from Shenmu sub-bituminous coal with addition of Fe(NO3)3 by KOH activation, and used for catalytic methane decomposition. The effects of Fe amount and carbonization/activation temperature on the structure and catalytic performance of resultant catalysts were investigated. The results showed that ferric nitrate mixed with coal could be directly reduced to Fe metal during the carbonization/activation process without a hydrogen reduction process. Methane conversion over Fe-doped carbon catalysts significantly increases as the amount of added Fe increases. When the amount of Fe added is 30 wt %, the resultant Fe-doped carbon has the highest catalytic activity and methane conversion increases from initial 20% to 58% at the reaction time of 9 h. Low carbonization temperature leads to high initial conversion. The active sites of the Fe-doped carbon catalysts prepared at higher temperature mainly come from metal Fe particles, thus leading to lower initial catalytic activity but better stability.