Different supported Ni catalysts for dry reforming of methane: Effect of calcination temperature

Abstract

Due to the increased environmental consciousness about reducing greenhouse gas emissions of CH4 and CO2, an intriguing study issue is the dry reformation of CH4 (DRM) over a catalyst made of Ni.). Herein in this work, 5.0 wt% NiO was loaded on various supports (S = TiO2-P25, Al2O3, MgO, and ZrO2) through the process of dry impregnation. At 600 °C or 800 °C, the catalysts were then calcined to investigate the impact of calcination temperature on the catalytic performance. The catalysts were characterized by N2 physisorption, Raman spectroscopy, thermalgravimetric analysis, XRD, and TEM. The best catalyst was obtained when the MgO-supported Ni catalyst was operated at 700 °C and was calcined at 600 °C. This catalyst gave average conversions of CH4 and CO2 of 70.04 % and 77.2 %, respectively. However, when the calcination temperature of the same catalyst was increased to 800 °C, the average conversions of CH4 and CO2 dropped to 37.9 % and 48.07 %, respectively. Thus, the calcination pretreatment strongly influenced the catalyst performance, where rising the calcination temperature lowered the activity. The Al2O3-supported sample had the highest surface area, metal-support interaction, and activity. It produced a large amount of carbon nanotubes, whereas the MgO-supported sample presented the least carbon formation, the lowest deactivation factor, and no morphology change due to the reaction in the TEM.

Keywords

• Metal oxide support
• Ni-based catalyst
• Calcination temperature
• Dry reforming of methane