Kinetic investigation of carbon monoxide hydrogenation under realistic conditions of methanation of biomass derived syngas

A milli-fixed bed reactor was employed to investigate the kinetics of CO hydrogenation reaction over a commercial nickel catalyst. The experimental studies were carried out under industrially relevant conditions of low temperature methanation of biomass derived syngas: at the temperature range 250–360 °C, various H2/CO feed ratio, in the presence of CO2 and steam. The catalyst exhibited a gradual loss of activity during the kinetic tests. The deactivation behavior of catalyst depended on operating conditions and might be explained by carbon deposition according to the results of H2-TPR/MS and XPS analysis. At the initial stages of the reaction, the reactor was simulated using one-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model and assuming plug flow. The observed initial reaction rates were fitted using intrinsic kinetic models.