Catalytic Combustion of Low-Concentration Methane: From Mechanistic Insights to Industrial Applications

Coal mining releases large amounts of low-concentration methane. Its global warming potential per unit mass is about 21 times that of carbon dioxide. Approximately 13.5 billion cubic meters are directly emitted each year without utilization. This results in both energy waste and environmental issues. Technologies for utilizing methane with concentrations ≥8% are already mature. However, stable treatment of low-concentration methane remains challenging. Issues include unsustainable combustion and interference from impurities. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in the catalytic combustion of low-concentration methane, systematically examining reaction mechanisms, catalyst development (including noble metal catalysts, non-noble metal catalysts, and the role of supports), combustion methods, and numerical simulations. The analysis reveals that current research faces challenges such as mismatched catalyst performance under real conditions, insufficient combustion system stability, and gaps between numerical simulations and practice. Future work should focus on molecular-level catalyst design, integrated system innovation, and enhancing simulation predictive capabilities, thereby strengthening the link between basic research and engineering applications. This will promote the industrialization of efficient low-concentration methane utilization technologies, ultimately achieving both energy recovery and greenhouse gas emission reduction.