Enhanced Long-term Stability and Carbon Resistance of Ni/MnxOy-Al2O3 Catalyst in Near-equilibrium CO2 Reforming of Methane for Syngas Production
Baya Djebarri, Fouzia Touahra, Nadia Aider, Ferroudja Bali, Moussa Sehailia, Redouane Chebout, Khaldoun Bacharı, D. Halliche
Abstract
Herein we study the catalytic activity/stability of a new generation of cheap and readily available Ni and Al-based catalysts using two Mn precursors, namely Mn(NO3)2 and Mn(EDTA)2- complex in the reaction of CO2 reforming of methane. In this respect, Ni/Al2O3 and two types of Ni/MnxOy-Al2O3 catalysts were successfully synthesized and characterized using various analytical techniques: TGA, ICP, XRD, BET, FTIR, TPR-H2, SEM-EDX, TEM, XPS and TPO-O2. Utilization of Mn(EDTA)2- as synthetic precursor successfully furnished Ni/Al2O3-MnxOyY (Y = EDTA) catalyst which was more active during CO2 reforming of methane when compared to Ni/MnxOy-Al2O3 catalyst, synthesized using Mn(NO3)2 precursor. Compared to Ni/MnxOy-Al2O3, Ni/Al2O3-MnxOyY catalyst afforded near-equilibrium conversion values at 700 °C (ca. 95% conversion for CH4 and CO2, and H2/CO = 0.99 over 50 h reaction time). Also, Ni/Al2O3-MnxOyY showed more resistance to carbon formation and sintering; interestingly, after 50 h reaction time, the size of Ni0 particles in Ni/MnxOy-Al2O3 almost doubled while that of Ni/Al2O3-MnxOyY remained unchanged. The elevated conversion of CO2 and CH4 in conjunction with the observed low carbon deposition on the surface of our best catalyst (Ni/Al2O3-MnxOyY) indicated the presence of MnxOy oxide positioning mediated simultaneous in-situ carbon elimination with subsequent generation of oxygen vacant sites on the surface for more CO2 adsorption. Copyright © 2020 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).Corrigendum to this article is here: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.15.3.9855.907-907