NiYAl-Derived Nanoporous Catalysts for Dry Reforming of Methane

Syota Imada,Abdillah Sani Bin Mohd Najib,Takeshi Fujita,Hideki Abe,Masahiro Miyauchi,Zexing Cai,Xiaobo Peng

doi:10.3390/ma13092044

Abstract

Dry reforming of methane can be used for suppressing the rapid growth of greenhouse gas emissions. However, its practical implementation generally requires high temperatures. In this study, we report an optimal catalyst for low-temperature dry reforming of methane with high carbon coking resistance synthesized from NiYAl alloy. A facile two-step process consisting of preferential oxidation and leaching was utilized to produce structurally robust nanoporous Ni metal and Y oxides from NiYAl4. The catalyst exhibited an optimal carbon balance (0.96) close to the ideal value of 1.0, indicating the optimized dry reforming pathway. This work proposes a facile route of the structural control of active metal/oxide sites for realizing highly active catalysts with long-term durability.

Highlights

Increasing greenhouse gas (CO2 ) emissions trigger various climatic disasters and are gradually raising the sea level, which considerably decrease habitable areas
Microstructures of the obtained catalysts were characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM, JEM-2100F, JEOL, Tokyo, Japan) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS, Ince Energy TEM 250, Oxford, Abingdon, UK)
Surface morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM, Hitachi SU-8030, Tokyo, Japan) at an accelerating voltage of 15 kV

Summary

Introduction

Increasing greenhouse gas (CO2 ) emissions trigger various climatic disasters and are gradually raising the sea level, which considerably decrease habitable areas. Methane (CH4 ) is both a major component of natural gas and a greenhouse gas; the dry reforming of methane (DRM, CH4 + CO2 →2H2 + 2CO) could become a promising strategy for tackling excessive CO2 output without disrupting the current infrastructure and converting it to valuable chemical products [1] This reaction requires a relatively high temperature (>800 ◦ C). To suppress a significant growth of carbon fabric on Ni particles, topological modification of the active sites located at the metal–oxide interface should be performed. 2 3 from bulk can produce advanced materials with high catalytic activity coking for contrast toalloy conventional chemical routes, the top-down process starting fromand bulk alloy tolerance can produce methane advancedconversion. Materials with high catalytic activity and coking tolerance for methane conversion

Preparation

Microstructural Characterization

Catalytic Studies

Results and Discussion

Oformation

Conclusions