Dry reforming of methane over Ni/SiO2 and Ni-Mo/SiO2 catalysts

• Main Author: Toh, Serene York Ling.
• Other Authors: Yang Yanhui
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering::Chemical processes
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16511
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bimetallic catalysts have been investigated over the CO2 dry reforming of methane. Two types of catalyst system are being studied in this research project - the influence of molybdenum additive on Ni/SiO2 prepared by wet co-impregnation and the incorporation of Zr cations into Ni-MCM-41 prepared by hydrothermal synthesis. The fresh and spent catalysts were also characterized by XRD, Raman spectra and TG-DTA. The result indicated that the addition of Mo improves the catalyst stability compared to unmodified Ni catalyst but has detrimental effect on catalytic activity. The improved catalytic stability by the modified Ni/SiO2 was most probably due to the reduced carbon formation on the catalyst. In the case of Ni-Zr MCM-41 series, they give comparable or even better catalytic activity and stability than Ni-MCM-41, and the improved catalytic performance is suggested with the highly stabilized metal dispersion of the active sites as well as the facilitation of the anchoring effect provided by the Zr ions. 2Ni-2Zr has the best performance in terms of catalytic activity and stability and the Ni-Zr series proved to be the promising catalysts for CO2 reforming of methane. Possible future studies can be done on the addition of Mo metal as promoter due to its redox properties in reducing carbon formation.