How can I turn hydrogen into methane?

Question

You're going to have to bear with me here. Please assume I have
- a nice site in an industrial park
- a source of hydrogen
- a few million quid
- plenty of cooling water, electricity, whatever I need.

I'd like to get my carbon from CO2 in the air if I could, but I'd need to know how much energy I'd waste separating out the CO2 from the air (note: the energy used splitting the C from the O2 is fine, that's all part of the Master Plan...)

Answer 1

So you want to reduce CO2 with H2 to produce CH4 and H2O,

So the reaction would be:

CO2 + 4H2 --> CH4 + 2H2O

Probably will need a catalyst and a lot of heat. This is definitely not a spontaneous reaction.

But a higher yield could be obtained by first converting the CO2 to CO by heated exposure to glowing hot carbon black and then reacting the CO with H2.

CO2 + C --> 2CO

CO + 3H2 --> CH4 + H2O

But, again, these are not spontaneous reactions and would require oxygen free environments, high temperatures, and a catalyst.

Answer 2

Hydrogen into methane?

Get a LOT of balloons, sell them to kids, then buy lots of cows and hay... That is how you can turn hydrogen into methane.

Answer 3

its easy, just take one balloon of hydrogen and one balloon of carbon dioxide and put them in your microwave for approximately 12 minutes

when the time is up the balloon with the hydrogen will contain methane and the balloon with the carbon dioxide will contain oxygen

Answer 4

Fart!