Highly Selective Syngas/H2 Production via Partial Oxidation of CH4 Using (Ni, Co and Ni–Co)/ZrO2–Al2O3 Catalysts: Influence of Calcination Temperature

In this study, Ni, Co and Ni–Co catalysts supported on binary oxide ZrO2–Al2O3 were synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized by means of various analytical techniques such as XRD, BET, TPR, TPD, TGA, SEM, and TEM. This catalytic system was then tested for syngas respective H2 production via partial oxidation of methane at 700 °C and 800 °C. The influence of calcination temperatures was studied and their impact on catalytic activity and stability was evaluated. It was observed that increasing the calcination temperature from 550 °C to 800 °C and addition of ZrO2 to Al2O3 enhances Ni metal-support interaction. This increases the catalytic activity and sintering resistance. Furthermore, ZrO2 provides higher oxygen storage capacity and stronger Lewis basicity which contributed to coke suppression, eventually leading to a more stable catalyst. It was also observed that, contrary to bimetallic catalysts, monometallic catalysts exhibit higher activity with higher calcination temperature. At the same time, Co and Ni–Co-based catalysts exhibit higher activity than Ni-based catalysts which was not expected. The Co-based catalyst calcined at 800 °C demonstrated excellent stability over 24 h on stream. In general, all catalysts demonstrated high CH4 conversion and exceptionally high selectivity to H2 (~98%) at 700 °C

Hydrogen Production by Partial Oxidation Reforming of Methane over Ni Catalysts Supported on High and Low Surface Area Alumina and Zirconia

The catalytic activity of the partial oxidation reforming reaction for hydrogen production over 10% Ni supported on high and low surface area alumina and zirconia was investigated. The reforming reactions, under atmospheric pressure, were performed with a feed molar ratio of CH4/O2 = 2.0. The reaction temperature was set to 450–650 °C. The catalytic activity, stability, and carbon formation were determined via TGA, TPO, Raman, and H2 yield. The catalysts were calcined at 600 and 800 °C. The catalysts were prepared via the wet-impregnation method. Various characterizations were conducted using BET, XRD, TPR, TGA, TPD, TPO, and Raman. The highest methane conversion (90%) and hydrogen yield (72%) were obtained at a 650 °C reaction temperature using Ni-Al-H-600, which also showed the highest stability for the ranges of the reaction temperatures investigated. Indeed, the time-on-stream for 7 h of the Ni-Al-H-600 catalyst displayed high activity and a stable profile when the reaction temperature was set to 650 °C

Catalytic Performance of Metal Oxides Promoted Nickel Catalysts Supported on Mesoporous γ-Alumina in Dry Reforming of Methane

Dry reforming of CH4 was conducted over promoted Ni catalysts, supported on mesoporous gamma-alumina. The Ni catalysts were promoted by various metal oxides (CuO, ZnO, Ga2O3, or Gd2O3) and were synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation method. The influence of the promoters on the catalyst stability, coke deposition, and H2/CO mole ratio was investigated. Stability tests were carried out for 460 min. The H2 yield was 87% over 5Ni+1Gd/Al, while the CH4 and CO2 conversions were found to decrease in the following order: 5Ni+1Gd/Al > 5Ni+1Ga/Al > 5Ni+1Zn/Al > 5Ni/Al > 5Ni+1Cu/Al. The high catalytic performance of 5Ni+1Gd/Al, 5Ni+1Ga/Al, and 5Ni+1Zn/Al was found to be closely related to their contents of NiO species, which interacted moderately and strongly with the support, whereas free NiO in 5Ni+1Cu/Al made it catalytically inactive, even than 5Ni/Al. The 5Ni+1Gd/Al catalyst showed the highest CH4 conversion of 83% with H2/CO mole ratio of ~1.0

Optimization of the Performance of Packed Bed Fermentor with Immobilized Zymomonas Mobilis for the Production of Fuel Alcohol

Heterogeneous compartmental model is used to optimize the performance of a packed bed fer-mentor with immobilized zymomonas mobilis for the production of fuel alcohol. The results indicate that the outlet ethanol concentrations have maximum values that decreased with increasing feed sugar concentration at single bead diameter. The outlet ethanol concentrations have maximum values that increased with decreasing the dilution rate. As the dilution rate increased the ethanol production increased. As the substrate inhibition constant (K1) increased both the maximum outlet ethanol concentration and the optimum feed sugar concentration increased up to K1 value of 500 g/L above that each have constant value

Simulation of Distillation of a Large Relative Volatility Mixture

In this paper, difficulties relating to the simulation of distillation columns for separating mixtures containing components with large relative volatility between the light and heavy key components are discussed. The system used for the study is ethylene o-xylene mixture. The relative volatility is not only large but its change with temperature is also large. This makes the system model equations highly non-linear. Great difficulty is met to obtain converged solution using packages like Hysis and Pro/II. Attempts have been made to obtain optimum design and a method suggested to enhanced convergence