Synthesis gas production from dry reforming of methane over Ni/Al 2O 3 stabilized by ZrO 2

Abstract

The effect of zirconia as a promoter and catalyst preparation method for Ni/Al 2O 3 on catalyst activity and coke inhibition was investigated for the reforming of CH 4 by CO 2. The performance of the promoted catalyst prepared by co-impregnation and sequential impregnation methods with different loadings of ZrO 2 was compared. The addition of ZrO 2 greatly improved the stability of Ni/Al 2O 3 catalyst in terms of coke inhibition by enhancing the dissociation of oxygen intermediates, which then react with carbonaceous species formed over the metal. The rate of catalyst deactivation due to coke deposition for the sequential impregnated catalyst was lower compared to the co-impregnated catalyst at the same promoter loading. For the co-impregnated catalyst, ZrO 2 loading did not substantially affect the catalyst stability, while the low promoter loading in sequentially impregnated catalyst was much more stable than the high loading. The 7% ZrO 2 loaded in Ni/Al 2O 3 by sequential impregnation yielded the most stable catalyst for a dry reforming reaction.