CO2 reforming of methane to syngas over highly active and stable nickel catalyst supported on mesoporous nanocrystalline zirconia

Nanocrystalline zirconia with high surface area, mesoporous structure and pure tetragonal crystallite phase has been prepared by the surfactant-assisted route and employed as support for nickel catalysts in dry reforming. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, BET, H2 chemisorption and SEM techniques. The prepared zirconia showed a surface area of 174 m2 g-1 after calcination at 700ºC for 4 h. The XRD results showed that the tetragonal phase and mesoporous structure were stable towards higher temperatures. It was shown that the 4%Ni/ZrO2 catalyst exhibited stable activity for syngas production with a decrease about 4% in methane conversion after 50 h of reaction. Addition of cerium oxide to the nickel catalyst improved its stability and decreased the coke deposition.

Keywords:

Zirconia , Nanocrystal , Ni catalysts , Dry reforming