Carbon dioxide reforming of methane in the presence of nickel and platinum catalysts supported on ZrO2

Abstract

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to produce synthesis gas (CO+H2) is currently attracting a much interest. One of the reasons for this interest is that the reaction consumes CH4 and CO2, both of which are greenhouse gases. CO2 reforming of methane is only a permanent solution to the problem of CO2 emissions if the synthesis gas generated from the reaction is not used to produce fuels which relatively quickly end up as CO2 once more as result of combustion. A possible solution to this is to convert the syngas to polymeric materials such as polycarbonates which will have long-term usage. Another advantage of the CO2/CH4 reaction is that the syngas has a H2/CO ratio of 1:1 which is ideal for the manufacture of certain chemicals—for example, oxo-alcohols by the reaction of CO +H2 plus the corresponding alcohols. Compared with the production of such a syngas mixture from the reaction of steam with coke, in which methane is also formed, the purity of the syngas formed by C q reforming is much better (>99.8%); impurities such as methane give problems during the formation of polycarbonates. The aim of this chapter is to develop catalysts which are capable of catalysing the CO2/CH4 reaction under as near as possible to stoichiometric conditions (CO2/CH4 = 1).