Evaluation of sepiolite-supported catalysts for dry reforming of methane

Trabajo presentado en la European Hydrogen Energy Conference - EHEC, celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 12 al 14 de mayo de 2014.
Biogas is a hydrogen source produced by the anaerobic digestion of organic matter present on waste. The utilization of this resource not only constitutes an alternative fuel that can reduce fossil fuel dependency and emissions of greenhouse gases, but also helps to reduce all the organic matter present on waste [1]. The hydrogen, obtained from biogas can be used to feed certain types of fuel cells, which offer the advantages of higher efficiencies and neither pollutants nor greenhouse gases generation. Since CH4 and CO2 are the main components present in biogas [2], CO2 reforming of methane constitutes an interesting process to study. The major drawback of this reaction is catalyst deactivation, mainly produced by carbon deposition [3,4]. Sepiolite is a good material as catalytic support due to their fibrous structure and open porous network [5] but it has not been studied in dry reforming of methane. On the surface of the sepiolite there are both alkaline center (Mg, O tetrahedron) and acid center (Si, O tetrahedron). Since acidity seems to favor carbon deposition, two lanthanides has been added in order to see its influence in the Ni-based catalyst for biogas reforming.
Financial support from Comunidad de Madrid (DIVERCELCM, S2009/ENE-1475) is gratefully acknowledged.