Convert Methane to CO2

[JLooking]

I have quite a bit of methane I'd like to convert to CO2, water or something else that's not readily combustible. I'd prefer to not have to burn the methane, though I realize combustion is the obvious answer. A flare is just not practical in the location where the methane is generated. Disposing of heat generated through some other reaction would be possible. Catalysts have been suggested, but being a Mechanical Engineer I have little knowledge of such things, though from what I can see they seem to be made of expensive sounding elements. Also residence times would need to be short (why? I'm not sure, but long residence times also sound expensive). I was wondering about reacting with ozone, or some process involving UV. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
JL

 

[moltenmetal]

Forget about ozone or UV- neither are going to give you what you want, and both are going to be expensive to do anything.

You need either a flare or a thermal oxidizer, or to send the methane to somebody who will use it.

Catalysts are unnecessary. Methane burns just fine without a catalyst. Any hot surface will keep it lit, and it burns quite efficiently all the way to CO2 unless you try to starve it of oxygen.

 

[JLooking]

Thanks for the pointer on the thermal oxidizer, I'll take a look at that.
JL

 

[Compositepro]

The important point is that the heat release per pound will be the same no matter how you go about oxidizing it.

If you have a lot and it's clean maybe you can give it to the local gas company. You could also vent it without burning as long as you take care to disperse it. I know that new gas lines in power plants are blown-down to atmosphere to remove debris. There have been accidents in doing so.

 

[moltenmetal]

Please DON'T emit it by venting without burning it first. Methane is ~ 20x worse as a greenhouse gas than CO2 is, and its half life in the atmosphere is fairly long as well.

You can manage the heat with excess air.

 

[ornerynorsk]

What quantity would "quite a bit" be? Two things come to mind immediately - could the gas be burned to either generate electricity or hot water, both less expensive than a reactor vessel.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

 

[JLooking]

Unfortunately I don't much of a say in what happens to the methane. If I'm told to flare then that's what will happen, and at the moment that's the way its looking. Its not ideal for many reasons but there aren't many options. As far as venting straight to atmosphere, well if the regulations allow it, which they seem to, and its a cheaper option, that's what will happen. Until there is an immediate dollar value on the long term environmental hazards, well you know...