Fluidization characteristics of aerogel Co/Al2O3 catalyst in a magnetic fluidized bed and its application to CH4–CO2 reforming

The fluidization characteristics of a nanoparticle catalyst were investigated in a fluidized bed assisted with an axial magnetic field. It showed that slugging and channeling, commonly observed when processing nanoparticles via conventional fluidized bed reactors, could be effectively eliminated, and the size of the agglomerates and bubble diameter could also be reduced with the aid of the magnetic field, leading to much improved gas–solid contact efficiency. Due to the improved gas–solid contact efficiency, the performance of the CH4–CO2 catalytic reforming has been significantly enhanced, where the initial conversion of CH4 was 7.6% and 24.3% higher than those obtained in a conventional fluidized bed reactor and a fixed bed reactor. The catalytic deactivation, caused by carbon deposition on catalyst surfaces, is also slower in the magnetic fluidized bed operation, where the CH4 conversion is 11.7% and 42.6% greater as compared with those in the conventional fluidized bed operation and the fixed bed operation. The present investigations demonstrated that carbon deposition can be much suppressed through improving the gas–solid contact efficiency with the assistance of the magnetic field.