Production of Synthesis gas by Carbondioxide Reforming Using Perovskite Catalysts

Abstract

Consuming two major greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane(CH4), to produce synthesis gas, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2), carbondioxide reforming of methane shows significant environmental and economic benefits. However, the process has not found wide industrial application due to severe catalyst deactivation, basically caused by carbon formation. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop stable catalysts without severe deactivation. This work is mainly focused on the development of perovskitesbased catalysts to achieve stable operation for CO2 reforming of CH4. The Perovskite catalyst was prepared by Sol-gel and Co-precipitation method to improve activity, stability and selectivity in order to reduce coke formation and to achieve long-term operation.Four perovskite catalyst(LaNiO3 and LaCoO3) were successfully prepared using Sol-gel method (SG) and Coprecipitation method (CP). The catalysts were characterized by XRD and BET. After reduction, the activity of the catalysts in the CO2 reforming of methane was tested. The conversion of CH4 and CO2 over LaNiO3were 86% and 87%, respectively, the selectivity of H2 and CO were 63% and 66%, significantly higher than those over LaCoO3 catalyst at 800 °C. LaNiO3 catalyst prepared by the Co-precipitation method was the most active catalyst exhibiting a methane conversion of 86%. LaCoO3catalyst prepared by the Co-precipitation method was the most stable catalyst exhibiting a marginal decrease in stability of 16% over a period of 8 hrs.