High CO methanation activity on zirconia-supported molybdenum sulfide catalyst

Abstract

In this study, different methods were used to prepare MoO3/ZrO2 catalysts for sulfur resistant methanation reaction. It was found that MoO3/ZrO2 catalyst prepared by one-step co-precipitation method achieved high methanation performance. CO conversion could reach up to 90% on 25 wt% MoO3/ZrO2 catalyst, much higher than that on the conventional 25 wt% MoO3/Al2O3 catalyst. The Mo-based catalysts were characterized by XRF, XRD, Raman, BET, TEM and H2-TPR etc. It was found that MoO3 particles were highly dispersed on ZrO2 support for 25 wt% MoO3/ZrO2 catalyst prepared at 65–85 °C because of its relatively larger pore size, which contributed to a high CO conversion. Meanwhile, when MoO3 loading exceeded the monolayer coverage, the formed crystalline MoO3 and ZrMo2O8 might block the micropores of the catalyst and make the methanation activity declined. These results are useful for preparing highly efficient catalyst for CO methanation process.