High Catalytic Activity and Low Coke Formation of Ni/Y<sub><i>x</i></sub>Ce<sub><i>y</i></sub>Ru<sub><i>z</i></sub>O<sub>4</sub> Catalysts in the Methane Reforming Process in a Microstructure Reactor
Yasin Khani, Nasser Safari, Farzad Bahadoran, Saeed Soltanali, Akbar Zamaniyan
Abstract
The performance of spinel YxCeyRuzO4 (x = 1.5, y = 0.84, and z = 0.04) as the catalyst support in dry and steam reforming of methane (DMR/SMR) in a monolithic microreactor has been investigated. Ni/YxCeyRuzO4 catalysts have been compared with Ni/Ce–Y–Ru–Al2O3 and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts in the reactor test in terms of catalyst activity and stability under identical conditions. The structural features of the catalyst including surface area, morphology, and crystalline structure have been investigated using BET, XRD, XPS, TEM, FE-SEM, EDX, ICP, TPR, TGA, and TPD analyses. YxCeyRuzO4 shows that a good dispersion of the active nickel metal on the catalyst support will result in higher efficiency and activity, low temperature reduction, higher active BET surface area, and higher pore volume. The catalytic activity for SMR and DMR reactions is in the order Ni/YxCeyRuzO4 > Ni/Ce–Y–Ru–Al2O3 > Ni/Al2O3. The highest methane conversion (93%) in addition to very low coke formation is obtained using Ni/YxCeyRuzO4, which is a significant achievement in comparison to previous DMR and SMR catalysts.