Catalyst design for methane steam reforming

Commercial syngas production via methane steam reforming is conventionally carried out over Ni catalyst supported on semiconductor oxides such as Al ₂O₃ and SiO₂. The present work reports empirical verification of catalyst design for methane steam reforming carried out at relatively low steam-to-carbon feed ratio (2:1-2:1) and compares the behavior among SiO₂, SBA-15 (mesoporous silica), γ-Al ₂O₃ and α-Al₂O₃ supported Ni catalyst. In addition promoters such as B, Ce, Mo and Zr were assessed. SBA-15 and Ce emerged to be significant support and promoter respectively. However there seems to be an optimum Ni wt% loading for a given support which was found to be 10 wt% for SBA-15. The investigations revealed that MSR over 1 wt% Ce/10 wt% Ni/SBA-15 at S:C = 1-2 at atmospheric pressure and 1073 K resulted in 92-99% methane conversion with higher H₂ to CO ratio and highly resistant to carbon deposition.