Influence of the oxygen pretreatment on the CO2 reforming of methane on Ni/β-SiC catalyst

The influence of the O2 pretreatment on the CO2 reforming of methane to synthesis gas has been investigated with Ni catalysts supported on β-SiC extrudate. The structure and properties of the catalysts were characterised by SEM, TEM and XRD techniques. The pretreatment of the catalyst by a mixture of CO2 and O2 significantly improves the catalytic activity for the CO2 reforming. On the Ni 5 wt.% supported on β-SiC catalyst, the CH4 conversion has reached 90% with the O2 pretreatment instead of 80% by direct activation under CO2/CH4 mixture. The oxygen pretreatment seems to stabilize the metallic nickel phase instead of NiSi2.