Insights into Co and Fe-doping effects of mesoporous CeO2 catalysts for dry reforming of glycerol to syngas production

Abstract

The dry reforming of glycerol (GDR) is one of the alternatives for syngas production by utilizing biodiesel byproduct glycerol and CO2. The development of highly active and stable catalyst is significantly important to achieve GDR process, and the current work provides insights into Co and Fe-doping effects of mesoporous CeO2 (CoFeCe) catalysts synthesized by the colloidal solution combustion method. The prepared catalysts presented the uniform mesoporous structure, the doping of Co and Fe metals resulted in stronger metal-support interaction. The GDR experimental data were compared with the non-stoichiometric thermodynamic equilibrium values. The conversions of glycerol and CO2 were increased with increasing the reaction temperatures due to the endothermic GDR reaction, and the H2/CO produced in syngas was in the range of 0.7–1.4. Due to the improvement of Co and Fe metals in the mesoporous structure of CeO2 catalyst, the 7CoFeCe catalyst exhibited excellent and stable GDR performance and no significant signs of deactivation were observed during 76 h test, and the results indicated that the enhanced interaction and high dispersion of Co and Fe in mesoporous CeO2 catalyst could inhibit carbon formation and promote GDR reaction.