A review on recent bimetallic catalyst development for synthetic natural gas production via CO methanation

CO methanation has arisen as an attractive research area due to its ability to transform syngas into substituted natural gas. Current monometallic catalysts have a severe problem; quickly deactivated. It is generally known that by introducing another metal to create a bimetallic catalyst, synergistic interaction between both metals considerably enhances catalyst effectiveness. This paper provides a detailed overview of bimetallic catalysts for CO methanation, covering its synthesis method and effect on physicochemical characteristics. The bimetallic catalyst can both reinforce or weaken the metal-support and metal-metal interaction, which weakening it favors reducibility while reinforcing it favors stability. Particle size and dispersion also improve, whereas adding lanthanides can increases the basicity. We also present the mechanism of CO methanation over the bimetallic catalyst, which modifies the mechanism's energy and rate value. This review provides insights on how reaction effectiveness is enhanced, enabling catalyst development with the highest possible performance.