Carbon dioxide reforming of methane over nickel/alkaline earth metal oxide catalysts Original Research Article

The CO2 reforming of CH4 over reduced NiO/alkaline earth metal oxide catalysts was investigated. A CO yield of 95% was obtained from a stoichiometric feed mixture of CH4 and CO2, at high GHSV (60 000 cm3 g−1 h−1), over a reduced NiOMgO with a weight ratio of 0.2. In addition, the catalyst had excellent stability, since the CO yield remained unchanged during 120h. Compared to the reduced NiOMgO catalyst, the reduced NiOCaO,NiO SrO NiO BaO catalysts had low CO yields and very low stabilities. The TPD of CO over the reduced NiOMgO catalyst indicated a lower decomposition of CO to CO2 than over the other catalysts investigated, hence that MgO inhibits the disproportionation reaction 2CO → C + CO2 over Ni. The behavior of the reduced NiOMgO catalyst is probably due to the formation of a NiOMgO solution, as a result of the similar crystalline structures of NiO and MgO.