Syngas production through methane oxy-steam reforming over a Ni/SiO2 nanocatalyst prepared by a modified impregnation method

• Published in: Micro & nano letters 2016-12, Vol.11 (12), p.890-895
• Main Authors: Hosseini, Seyed Mohammad Sadegh, Hashemipour, Hassan, Talebizadeh, Alireza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adsorption; atmospheric pressure; catalysis; catalysts; catalytic activity; desorption; fixed bed reactor; Fourier transform infrared spectra; Fourier‐transformed infrared spectroscopy; hydrogen; methane conversion; methane oxy‐steam reforming; nanocatalyst; nanofabrication; nanostructured materials; nickel; nitrogen; Ni‐SiO2; oleylamine‐assisted impregnation method; organic compounds; physisorption; pressure 1 atm; reduction (chemical); silicon compounds; stability test; steam reforming; syngas; syngas production; temperature‐programmed reduction; time 10 h; transmission electron microscopy; X‐ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1750-0443; 1750-0443
• DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2016.0380

Synthesis gas can be converted into a number of important energy carriers and fuels and it is playing a growing role in the energy sector. In this work oxy-steam reforming of methane was performed over a modified 5%Ni/SiO2 catalyst in a fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure with the aim of producing syngas with high yield. The modified catalyst was synthesised by oleylamine-assisted impregnation method and characterised by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy, N2 physisorption measurement, temperature-programmed H2 reduction and transmission electron microscopy. For the comparative study, an unmodified 5%Ni/SiO2 catalyst was also prepared by conventional impregnation method. The reaction test results demonstrated that the value of methane conversion and the yield of syngas over the modified catalyst were almost 2 and 2.5 times more than ones over the unmodified catalyst. During the 10 h stability test, catalytic activity of the modified catalyst remained at high and constant values (92.5%) while the unmodified catalyst was rapidly deactivated during the stability test. The effective catalytic performance of the modified catalyst was related to the nanosize nickel species that interacted with the silica support strongly.