Tri-reforming of CH₄ over a Thermally Stable and Carbon-Resistant Nanonickel Metal Catalyst Dispersed on Mesoporous-Zirconia

Abstract

A novel nanonickel metal catalyst dispersed on mesoporous-zirconia is developed for the controlled production of the synthesis gas with an H 2 /CO molar ratio of 1.5−2 via the trireforming of methane (TRM). The catalysts were tested in a fixedbed reactor at 600−850 °C and 1 atm. At the optimum feed (CH 4 / CO 2 /O 2 /H 2 O/N 2 ) ratio of 1:0.5:0.1:0.0125:1, the maximum CO 2 and CH 4 conversion was ∼28 and ∼86%, respectively, over the 5 wt % Ni/ZrO 2 . At this condition, the syngas with an H 2 /CO ratio of ∼1.5 was achieved at a lower reaction temperature of 700 °C. The superior activity of this catalyst was due to the presence of highly dispersed and reduced nickel particles over the combined tetragonal and monoclinic phases of mesoporous ZrO 2 . The basic strength of the catalyst, the nickel particle size, and metal dispersion played vital roles in controlling the TRM activity as well as the H 2 /CO ratio. The time-on-stream study and the used catalyst characterization results established that the nanosized nickel metal particles dispersed on mesoporous zirconia were thermally stable and coke-resistant.

Tri-reforming of methane over Ni/ZrO2 catalyst derived from Zr-MOF for the production of synthesis gas

“…The BET surface area for all the catalysts dropped significantly (16.1-5.7 m 2 /g) because of the deformation of the MOF structure after calcination at 700 o C (Tu et al 2023). The highest surface area of 16.1 m 2 /g was obtained for the NZ-1000 catalyst, and this value was comparable with the values reported for the Ni/ZrO2 catalyst in the previous literature (Kumar et al 2019a;Pandey et al 2023). The PSD curve (Fig.…”

“…TEM images of Zr-MOF, reduced Ni/ZrO2 derived MOF, and spent catalysts were taken by the JEOL LEM 2100 microscope from Japan, operating at 200 kV accelerated voltage. Prior to the TEM analysis, the sample was prepared following the method used in our earlier research work (Pandey et al 2023).…”

“…Initially, the TRM activity of all the catalysts synthesized were screened at the optimum reaction condition reported in our previous study (Pandey et al 2023). The result obtained is plotted in Fig.…”