Carbon dioxide reforming of methane under periodic operation

Abstract

The carbon dioxide reforming of methane under periodic operation over a commercial Ni/SiO2·MgO catalyst was investigated at two different temperatures, 923 and 1,023 K. According to this operation, pure methane and carbon dioxide were alternately fed to the catalyst bed where methane cracking and the reverse Boudouard reaction took place, respectively. Therefore, hydrogen and carbon monoxide products appeared separately in different product streams. The performance of this operation was compared to that of the steady state operation with simultaneous feed of both carbon dioxide and methane. At 1,023 K, the methane conversion and hydrogen yield from the periodic operation initially decreased with time on stream and eventually leveled off at values about half of those obtained in the steady state operation with co-feed of both reactants. The decreased catalytic activity was due to the accumulation of carbonaceous deposit and loss of metal active sites. However, a different trend was observed at 923 K. The methane conversion and hydrogen yield were almost constant over the time on stream, although more carbonaceous deposit was progressively accumulated on the catalyst bed during the reaction course. At this temperature, the periodic operation offered the equivalent hydrogen yield to the steady state operation. The observed behavior could be due to the different mechanisms of carbon formation over the catalyst. Finally, it was found that cycle period and cycle split did not influence the reaction performance within the ranges of this study.