Today, the use of renewable energies and recycling of climate-changing gases are increasingly important. In this context, coupling of methanation with small, decentralized CO2 sources such as biogas plants provides one possibility. However, fluctuating availability of renewables for hydrogen production in combination with small storage volumes result in an enhanced demand for dynamic process operation. This leads to new research challenges with respect to the required catalysts and the overall process design. To draw reliable conclusions about the catalytic performance under dynamic process operation, the mechanism of the methanation reaction as well as typical deactivation procedures of the catalyst applied under steady-state conditions have to be reviewed thoroughly.
