"To Dissipate or not to Dissipate extra-Heat? This Is the Question!" How to Reduce Energy Wastes in a Challenging Process at the Heart of P2G Chain

A challenging task of modern catalysis is to get cheap and robust catalytic materials based on noncritical components while ensuring at the same time energy-saving reactors schemes. This contribution describes Ni-loaded hybrids (N-doped Carbon Nanotubes supported) and fully inorganic (?-Al2O3 supported) composites prepared to catalyze a highly exothermic process at the heart of the Power-to-Gas (P2G) chain: CO2 methanation. We demonstrated that a rational approach to the design and synthesis of Ni-based catalysts coupled with a conceptually new and energy-efficient handling of the extra-heat produced during the process lead to a highly efficient CO2 methanation protocol for the production of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG). The transition from a classical heating set-up (conduction/convection/radiation) to a "cold-reactor" scheme based on the radiofrequency heating of the Ni-active sites directly at the catalytic bed, boosts the catalytic process to the bounds of its inherent kinetic. Accordingly, the reaction is efficiently carried out (XCO2 up to 98% with > 99% SCH4) at temperatures (150-230 °C) much lower than those commonly claimed for related systems in the literature, hence ensuring an ideal energy balance to the net-zero decarbonization process.