Preparation and surface characterization of nickel catalysts on various support materials for low temperature steam reforming of methane

This project is a part of the collaborative research program on catalysis on the utilization natural gas, particularly on Steam Methane Reforming. The team realized that it is important to develop catalyst to provide the combination of carbon resistance and activity, which can be operated at low temperature as cost saving. Current catalysts being used is Ni base on alumina. Therefore, it was decided to prepare and investigate the characterization of nickel onto various supports such as -alumina, silica, titania and zirconia. The study showed that a nickel catalyst was successfully impregnated onto various supports. The reduction process for 1.5 hours at 500 oC successfully created nickel crystal on the surface of the catalysts. Alumina support has the highest surface area followed by silica, titania and zirconia supports. The highest nickel dispersion occurred on alumina then followed by silica, zirconia and titania supports. Moreover, nickel on alumina and nickel on silica has micropores, while nickel on titania and nickel on zirconia contain only slight micropores. Temperature programmable of carbon dioxide desorption showed that nickel on zirconia has the highest number of basic sites of 4.43 x 1018 molecule/m2. While from temperature programmable of ammonia desorption nickel on titania has the highest number of acid sites of 7.53 x 1018 molecule/m2. The basic property of nickel on zirconia may lead better catalyst activity and more resistant toward coke deposition compared with other support materials