Effect of copper and cerium on the performance of Ni-SBA-16 in the partial oxidation of methane.

In this research, the effect of Ce, Cu and Ce-Cu promoters on the performance of Ni/SBA-16 catalyst in partial oxidation of methane reaction was investigated. The Ni/SBA-16 catalyst with 9.1 wt% Ni content without promoter and Ni/SBA-16 catalyst promoted with cerium, copper, copper-cerium with equimolar to nickel content were prepared and their performance in methane partial oxidation reaction were evaluated. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, N₂ adsorption and EDX-FESEM analysis techniques. The N₂ adsorption isotherms of catalyst samples showed that adding promoters to the Ni/SBA-16 catalyst partly decreased the surface area of catalysts. Furthermore, the results using XRD analysis partly demonstrated dispersion of nickel particle for catalyst Cu-promoted. Also, SEM analysis showed a similar size of nano crystallites in the range of 8-20 nm for all catalyst samples. The results of evaluation of catalytic activities of the catalysts showed high activity of unpromoted and Ce-promoted nickel catalyst in methane conversion (≈ 93%) remained stable for 3 h. The effects of other reaction parameters such as temperature, gas hourly space velocity and molar ratio of the feed were also evaluated and reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]