Steam Prereforming of Natural Gas over Nanostructured Nickel/Magnesium Aluminate Spinel Catalysts: Effect of Support and Nickel Loading

Abstract

AbstractMesoporous MgAl2O4 powder with a high surface area (226 m2 g−1) is synthesized by a co‐precipitation method in the presence of a capping agent. The obtained powder was employed to prepare catalysts (y Ni/MA) with different nickel contents (y=3.5, 7, 10.5, and 14 wt %). The catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, H2‐TPR, TPD, TPO, and SEM techniques to study the effect of support and nickel content on the surface properties, Ni–MgAl2O4 interactions, Ni2+ species, nickel particle size, and reducibility. The catalytic performance of the y Ni/MgAl2O4 catalysts was tested in the steam prereforming of natural gas in the range of 400–550 °C, atmospheric pressure, low steam to carbon molar ratio (S/C=1.5) and a high gas hourly space velocity (GHSV=1×105 mL g−1catalyst h−1). The 10.5 % Ni/MA catalyst showed the highest nickel metal area (2.91 m2 g−1catalyst) which resulted in around 100 % of ethane and propane conversions at temperatures higher than 500 °C. This catalyst exhibited a high stability during 50 h time on‐stream, implying a high resistance to coke formation. While the 10.5 % Ni/MAC catalyst, the support (MAC) of which was synthesized by the solid‐state reaction method, demonstrated the lowest nickel area (0.04 m2 g−1catalyst) and a poor catalytic performance with a plenty of carbon deposition during steam prereforming reaction.