Syngas production through CO2 reforming of propane over highly active and stable mesoporous NiO-MgO-SiO2 catalysts: Effect of calcination temperature

Abstract

In this contribution, NiO-MgO-SiO2 catalyst was prepared and calcined at different temperatures of 500, 600, 700 and 800 °C. The resulting samples were characterized by BET-BJH, XRD, TPX, CO-chemisorption, EDS and SEM analyses. These were employed toward syngas production via propane dry reforming. The increment in the calcination temperature from 500 to 800 °C decreased the basicity of the catalysts. In addition, the active surface area and Ni dispersion were gradually declined by increasing the calcination temperature from 600 to 700 °C due to active metal sintering during the activation process. The calcined sample at 600 °C displayed the highest propane and CO2 conversions of 93% and 78% at the process temperature of 650 °C, respectively. This satisfying performance was supported through sufficient number of active sites combined with appropriate basic characteristic. Meanwhile, the largest amount of coke deposition was detected upon the calcined samples at 500 and 600 °C while at higher calcination temperatures lower carbon formation was obtained. Eventually, the reaction temperature of 650 °C was determined as the optimum temperature achieving moderately high activity and limited by-product formation over the NiO-MgO-SiO2 material. Ultimately, this mixed oxide catalyst was revealed to be very stable as well.