Search

The dry reforming of methane with CO is a common route to transform CO/CH mixtures into added value syngas. Ni based catalysts are highly active for this goal but suffer from deactivation, as such promoters need to be introduced to counteract this, and improve performance. In this study, mono- and bi-metallic formulations based on 10 wt.% Ni/CeO-AlO are explored and compared to a reference 10 wt.% Ni/γ-AlO. The effect of Sn and Pt as promoters of Ni/CeO-AlO was also investigated. The formulation promoted with Sn looked especially promising, showing CO conversions stabilising at 65% after highs of 95%. Its increased performance is attributed to the additional dispersion Sn promotion causes. Changes in the reaction conditions (space velocity and temperature) cement this idea, with the Ni-Sn/CeAl material performing superiorly to the mono-metallic material, showing less deactivation. However, in the long run it is noted that the mono-metallic Ni/CeAl performs better. As such the application is key when deciding which catalyst to employ in the dry reforming process.

Carbon formation and sintering remain the main culprits regarding catalyst deactivation in the dry and bireforming of methane reactions (DRM and BRM, respectively). Nickel based catalysts (10 wt.%) supported on alumina (Al2O3) have shown no exception in this study, but can be improved by the addition of tin and ceria. The effect of two different Sn loadings on this base have been examined for the DRM reaction over 20 h, before selecting the most appropriate Sn/Ni ratio and promoting the alumina base with 20 wt.% of CeO2. This catalyst then underwent activity measurements over a range of temperatures and space velocities, before undergoing experimentation in BRM. It not only showed good levels of conversions for DRM, but exhibited stable conversions towards BRM, reaching an equilibrium H2/CO product ratio in the process. In fact, this work reveals how multicomponent Ni catalysts can be effectively utilised to produce flexible syngas streams from CO2/CH4 mixtures as an efficient route for CO2 utilisation.