Syngas Production from Biogas Reforming: Role of the Support in Nickel-based Catalyst Performance

• Published in: Topics in catalysis Vol. 66; no. 1-4; pp. 262 - 274
• Main Authors: Pham, Cham Q., Nguyen, Van-Phuoc, Van, Thuan Tran, Phuong, Pham T.T., Pham, Phuong T.H., Trinh, Thanh H., Nguyen, Tung M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Basicity; Biogas; Carbon dioxide; Carbon monoxide; Catalysis; Catalysts; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical reactions; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Conversion; Dispersion; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Methane; Mixtures; Nickel; Original Paper; Pharmacy; Physical Chemistry; Reforming; Synthesis gas; Titanium dioxide; Nickel-based catalyst; Biogas reforming; Catalyst basicity; Hydrogen production; Syngas
• ISSN: 1022-5528; 1572-9028
• DOI: 10.1007/s11244-022-01750-y

Syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is widely used in electricity, synthetic chemicals, and fuels productions. Syngas can be obtained from a chemical reaction between methane and carbon dioxide that are commonly found in biogas. In this study, a simulated mixture of biogas containing CH
4
:CO
2
 = 1:1 (mol/mol) was used as the feedstock. Different nickel-based catalysts supported on TiO
2
, MgO, KIT-6, and Al
2
O
3
have been prepared through the dry impregnation method with a fixed Ni dosage of 10 wt%. All samples were characterized by modern techniques including XRD, BET, H
2
-TPR, CO
2
-TPD, TPO, and TEM. It was found that the metal-support interaction played a critical role in metal dispersibility and reducibility of catalyst precursors. During the methane dry reforming, catalyst basicity is a crucial factor facilitating the adsorption and activation of carbon dioxide. The highest activity was achieved over 10Ni/Al
2
O
3
with the methane conversion of 73.2% and carbon dioxide conversion of 86.9%. Furthermore, the effects of support properties on the catalyst stability were studied. Nature of support especially basicity plays an important role on the deposition of carbon over the active sites. The Ni/Al
2
O
3
with good nickel dispersibility, affordable metal-support interaction, reasonable basicity was reported the most stable without any significant deactivation after 6 h reaction. Finally, the catalyst design strategy for the DRM was proposed.