Ni‐Al2O3/Ni‐foam catalyst with enhanced heat transfer for hydrogenation of CO2 to methane

Abstract

Monolithic Ni‐Al2O3/Ni‐foam catalyst is developed by modified wet chemical etching of Ni‐foam, being highly active/selective and stable in strongly exothermic CO2 methanation process. The as‐prepared catalysts are characterized by x‐ray diffraction scanning electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, and H2‐temperature programmed reduction‐mass spectrometry. The results indicate that modified wet chemical etching method is working efficiently for one‐step creating and firmly embedding NiO‐Al2O3 composite catalyst layer (∼2 μm) into the Ni‐foam struts. High CO2 conversion of 90% and high CH4 selectivity of >99.9% can be obtained and maintained for a feed of H2/CO2 (molar ratio of 4/1) at 320°C and 0.1 MPa with a gas hourly space velocity of 5000 h−1, throughout entire 1200 h test over 10.2 mL such monolithic catalysts. Computational fluid dynamics calculation and experimental measurement consistently confirm a dramatic reduction of “hotspot” temperature due to enhanced heat transfer. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 4323–4331, 2015