A comparison study on carbon dioxide reforming of methane over Ni
Transcription
A comparison study on carbon dioxide reforming of methane over Ni
A comparison study on carbon dioxide reforming of methane over Ni catalysts supported on mesoporous SBA-15, MCM-41, KIT-6 and -Al2O3 Mohamad Hassan Amin, James Tardio, Suresh K. Bhargava Centre for Advanced Materials & Industrial Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia Email: [email protected] Abstract— The activity of Ni supported on mesoporous SBA-15, MCM-41, KIT-6, and a sol-gel prepared Ni/Al2O3, for catalysing methane dry reforming was investigated. The chemical and physical characteristics of the catalysts before and after catalytic testing were investigated using X-Ray diffraction, X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy / Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis, Thermogravimeteric Analysis, Temperature Programmed Reduction techniques and N2 adsorptiondesorption isotherms. Support type was found to have a significant influence on catalytic activity and stability. Among all the supported catalysts tested, the Ni/SBA-15 exhibited excellent catalytic performance in terms of conversion and long-term stability. The activity for the silica framework catalysts correlated strongly with the surface area and pore diameter of these materials with the degree of CH4 and CO2 conversions observed increasing with decreasing surface area and increasing pore diameter. Keywords- CO2 reforming of methane; Ni/SBA-15; Ni/Al2O3; Ni/KIT-6; Ni/ MCM-41. I. INTRODUCTION Catalytic reforming of methane with carbon dioxide, also known as dry reforming (CH4(g) + CO2(g) ↔ 2CO(g) + 2H2(g) ), is a promising process for simultaneous chemical transformation of two major greenhouse gases, CO 2 and CH4, to syngas, which can be used in a variety of downstream processes such as methanol production, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes and in carbonylation, hydrogenation, and hydroformylation processes [1, 2]. In recent years the main aim of research on CO2 reforming of methane has been the development of improved materials for catalysing this reaction. Different types of catalysts have been employed for dry reforming but from an industrial standpoint, Ni based catalysts are considered to be the most promising as they exhibit high catalytic activity [4-7], are readily available, and cost effective. Ni/SiO2 and Ni/Al2O3 have been two of the most often investigated catalysts for dry reforming of methane since 1979 [8] and 1980 [9] respectively. This interest has been mostly due to SiO2 and γ-Al2O3 (with melting points of 1973C and 2318C [10] respectively) having high mechanical strength and relatively low cost. Recently, three types of siliceous materials with different structural features have been investigated as support materials for Ni dry reforming catalysts.These materials, MCM-41, SBA-15 and KIT-6 are silica-based mesoporous materials with different pore diameter and surface area. In 1992, C. T. Kresge and coworkers [11] synthesized MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves by a liquid-crystal template mechanism. These materials presented an opportunity for the design of catalytically active sites inside uniform channels with controllable nano-size pore diameters. In 2009, Liu et al. employed MCM-41 as support and prepared a Ni/MCM-41 catalyst for dry reforming of methane [12]. They reported that the catalyst had good catalytic activity, high stability and produced syngas with reasonable H2/CO ratios. In 1998, B. F. Chmelka and G. D. Stucky et al. [13] reported the use of amphiphilic triblock copolymers to direct the organization of polymerizing silica species resulted in the preparation of well-ordered hexagonal mesoporous silica structures (SBA-15). SBA-15 is a type of ordered mesoporous silica with large pore diameter, thick wall, and good hydrothermal stability. In 2006, JI Shengfu and LI Chengyue et al. [14] investigated dry reforming of methane using a Ni/SBA-15 catalyst and reported that the 12.5% Ni/SBA-15 catalyst showed high activity and good stability at 800C.. In 2012, W. Yang and Z. Liu et al. [19] used a kind of Ni containing mesoporous silica, Ni-KIT-6 as a dry reforming catalyst. . In this work, a comparison study on methane dry reforming with carbon dioxide over Ni supported on mesoporous SBA15, MCM-41, KIT-6 and sol-gel prepared -Al2O3 has been investigated. This involved evaluation of CH4 and CO2 conversions using a custom built catalysis rig. Activity and stability results were compared and are discussed with regards to the characterisation data obtained. II. EXPERIMENTALS A. Catalyst preparation Ni/-Al2O3 containing 15wt% Ni was prepared using a solgel method as reported earlier [1]. SBA-15 and KIT-6 were prepared using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica sources and triblock copolymer P123 (Pluronic P123) as surfactant for both support materials. MCM-41 was prepared using hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide C16H33(CH3)3NBr (CTMABr) as surfactant and sodium silicate solution (27 wt.% SiO2, Aldrich) as the silicate source. The support materials were collected after calcining at 540 °C for 6 h in flowing air. The Ni(15 wt%)/silica based catalysts were prepared via wetness impregnation. .The SBA-15, MCM-41 and KIT-6 supports were impregnated with aqueous solutions containing appropriate amount of nickel nitrate at room temperature overnight, followed by drying at 110C for 12 h and calcination at 550C for 5 h. B. Characterization Materials were characterised using the following techniques / instruments – surface area Micromeritics ASAP 2010 surface area analyser and thermogravimeteric Analysis (TGA). The temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) of the calcined catalysts was undertaken in a quartz reactor (I.D. 4.5 mm), packed with 50 mg catalyst in a flow (20 mL.min-1) of H2-Ar mixture (4.14 mol% H2) from 250 oC to 880 oC at a linear heating rate of 10oC.min-1. The H2 consumed in the TPR study was measured quantitatively by TCD. Before the TPR study, the catalyst was pretreated at 500 oC for 1h under a flow (20 cm3 min-1) of argon. C. Catalytic activity testing Catalytic CO2-reforming of methane was carried out in a fixed-bed continuous flow quartz reactor at atmospheric pressure at a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 52,000 mLg−1h−1. In the current study, the activity and stability runs were performed at 700 C. All the catalysts were pre-reduced in situ in a mixed flow of H2 and He (10:40 mL min-1) at 700C for 2h. Then the reactant gases (CO2 and CH4) were fed (CO2: CH4: He = 1:1:2) into the reactor. The effluent mixed gases were cooled in an ice-water trap to remove gaseous water generated via the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction. The product gas mixture was analysed by on-line gas chromatography (Shimadzu GC, 17A) equipped with a silica packed column and a TCD. The time-on-stream activity and durability of the catalysts were carried out at 700 C for 20 h. The catalytic properties have been evaluated in term of the conversion of CO2 and CH4. After the durability test, the catalyst was removed and thermogravimeteric Analysis (TGA) (Perkin-Elmer TGA 7) was used to calculate the amount of deposited carbon. The effects of residence time (feed flow rate (gas film thickness)) and particle size were determined experimentally with a feed mixture composed of CO2: CH4: He (=1:1:2 vol. %) at 700 C. It was found that methane conversion was independent of average particle size, within a particle size range of 500-710 microns. Therefore mass transfer limitations did not occur under the aforementioned conditions. The potential influence of external diffusion limitations was also investigated by measuring the activity as a function of the catalyst loading at constant W/F ratio (W= catalyst mass, F = total flow of feed gas). It was found that conversion was not affected by varying catalyst load and the flow, i.e., at constant contact time. Thus, external mass transfer limitations do not occur under the conditions applied. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS A. Characterization The textural characteristics of the prepared mesoporous materials are summarized in Table 1. All samples exhibited type IV nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms with H1 shaped hysteresis loops (not shown), which are characteristic of materials having uniform “cylindrical shaped” pores in the framework [20].Three distinct regions can be discerned in the isotherms for these mesoporous materials: (1) monolayer– multilayer adsorption of nitrogen on the pore walls at low pressures, (2) a sudden steep increase of the adsorbed nitrogen at intermediate pressures due to capillary condensation, and (3) multilayer adsorption on the external surface of the particles. The existence of capillary condensation at higher relative pressures in SBA-15 relative to KIT-6 and MCM-41 samples is consistent with the larger pore diameters of the SBA-15. The broad hysteresis loop observed for the SBA-15 was most likely caused by the presence of long mesopores connected by smaller micropores, thus hampering the filling and emptying of the accessible volume [15]. After introducing Ni, an obvious decrease in the BET surface area, pore volume and pore diameter is observed. The introduction of Ni causes local blockage of pore channels by depositing Ni species at the pore entrance and/or partial structural degradation [15]. The reducibility of the nickel in the prepared catalysts was studied using temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). Figure 1 shows the TPR profiles of the catalysts and a nonsupported NiO for comparison. Table 1. Textural properties of different samples Nickel content Surface area (m2/g) Pore volume (cm3/g) (wt.%) 0 142 0.25 0 165 0.53 0 900 1.22 0 1355 1.14 15 124 0.24 15 161 0.40 15 463 0.38 15 1392 0.64 Support -Al2O3 SBA-15 KIT-6 MCM-41 -Al2O3 SBA-15 KIT-6 MCM-41 Pore diameter (nm) 7.81 13.95 6.05 4.16 8.17 10.5 4.04 2.96 Reference sample of NiO TCD signal (a.u.) a 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 Temperature (C) 700 750 800 850 TCD signal (a.u.) b Ni/-Al2O3 Ni/SBA-15 Ni/MCM-41 Ni/KIT-6 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 Temperature (C) 650 700 750 800 Figure 1. TPR profile of 15 wt.% Ni catalysts on different support. 850 900 The TPR profile for NiO shows that reduction of the Ni(II) started at ~240 C and reached a maximum rate at ~400C. The TPR profile of the Ni/-Al2O3 catalyst consisted of two clear reduction temperature zones. The low temperature zone (370 – 570oC) and a high temperature zone (600 – 900oC) represent the reduction of NiO and non-stoichiometric nickel aluminate in Ni/-Al2O3 respectively [1]. Based on the amount of H2 consumed in the two temperature zones the majority of the oxidised Ni in Ni/-Al2O3 catalyst presents in the form of a non-stoichiometric nickel aluminate. All the SiO2 based catalysts exhibit similar hydrogen reduction profiles showing a reduction peak at the low temperature zone which implies the presence of NiO particles. However, the reduction of Ni(II) in the Ni/KIT-6 and Ni/MCM-41 catalysts was slightly higher than that observed for the Ni/SBA-15 catalyst. This is most likely due to the arrangement of Si–OH on the inner surface is relatively regular for Ni/KIT-6 and Ni/MCM-41 while the pore surface of Ni/SBA-15 is rough with a substantial amount of Si(OH)2 groups associated with surface defects [15]. B. Catalytic activity for dry reforming of methane The ability of the supported nickel materials to catalyse the dry reforming of methane was investigated at 700 °C using a GHSV of 5.2 × 104 mLg−1h−1 for a period of 20 h. The results, in terms of CH4 and CO2 conversion, from the aforementioned tests are presented in Figures 2a and b. From the results presented in Figures 2a and b it can seen that the Ni/SBA-15 catalyst was clearly more active in terms of CH4 and CO2 conversion than all of the other materials tested. This catalyst was able to catalyse CH4 conversions between 84.5 and 85.1 % and a CO2 conversion of ~92.4 % throughout the entire testing period studied. The CH4 conversion approached the conversion expected for the system at thermodynamic equilibrium which is 91.5% [17] (CH4/CO2=1, atmospheric pressure and 700C). The CO2 conversion was higher than that expected if the system was at thermodynamic equilibrium (66.3%) [21], due to the influence of the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, which has been reported to occur under the experimental conditions used in this study [22]. CO2 + H2 CO + H2O (RWGS) Of the other catalysts tested (Ni/-Al2O3, NiKIT-6 and Ni/SBA-15) the Ni/MCM-41 was clearly the least active material. After 20 h time on stream, the activity sequence in terms of CH4 conversion was as following: Ni/SBA-15 (84%) > Ni/KIT-6 (77%) > Ni/-Al2O3 (67%) > Ni/MCM-41 (51%).The trends observed in activity for the SiO2 based catalysts correlated strongly with the surface area and pore diameter of these materials (Figure 3a and b) with the degree of CH4 and CO2 conversions observed increasing with decreasing surface area and increasing pore diameter. Similar behavior was observed for PdNi/MCM-41 [23], Ni(5wt%)/ SBA-15 and Ni(5wt%)/MCM-41 catalysts [24] where catalysts exhibiting higher surface area were less active. Based on these results it can be concluded that catalyst activity in these materials is also strongly influence by other factors, such as pore diameter active metal environment and / or morphology [23-27]. The H2/CO ratios obtained at 20h are shown in Table 2. From the data given in Table 2 it can be seen that the H2/CO ratio did not equal one (as predicted based on the stoichiometry of the overall dry reforming reaction). This however was expected as thermodynamics predicts a H2/CO ratio of unity only at temperatures above 800C [28]. The H2/CO ratios that were obtained have a similar pattern to the activity trends observed for the different supports. The Ni/MCM-41 catalyst produced a product gas with a low H2/CO ratio (0.83) which suggests that the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) easily occurs on this catalyst, which results from the presence of more unreacted CO2 under low catalytic activity [15], whilst the Ni/SBA-15 catalyst produced synthesis gas with the highest H2/CO ratios of 0.97. This high H2/CO ratio in the Ni/SBA-15 catalyst was most likely due to reduced water gas shift reaction occurring which may have been due to more rapid conversion of CO2 on Ni/SBA-15. In terms of stability all of the catalysts were relatively stable over the time frame tested (20 h) except for the Ni/KIT-6 catalyst which had a gradually reduced activity during the reaction. The amount of carbon deposited on the spent catalysts (which is expressed in Table 2 in terms of carbon deposition rate) was determined using TGA. Carbon deposition over the spent catalysts after 20 h time on stream was quantified by TG analysis. As shown in Table 2, the rate of carbon deposition on the catalysts was as follows: Ni/KIT-6 (0.0002) < Ni/ MCM41 (0.0003) < Ni/SBA-15 (0.0005) < Ni /-Al2O3 (0.0011). It is evident that the carbon deposition rate was lowest when using the Ni/KIT-6 catalyst and highest when using the Ni /Al2O3 catalyst. No clear trend in carbon deposition rate was observed for the materials tested. Interestingly the amount of carbon deposited on the Ni/KIT-6 catalyst, which underwent a gradual loss in activity in terms of CH4 and CO2 conversion, was lower than the amount deposited on the other catalysts which displayed stable activity up to 20 h of testing. This result indicates that the amount of carbon deposited was either most likely not solely responsible for the significant loss of activity observed and that it may have been due to the type(s) of carbon deposited and / or the location of the carbon deposition [1]. Table 2. H2/CO ratios and rate of carbon deposition on spent 15 wt.% Ni catalysts on different support. Support SBA-15 KIT-6 MCM-41 -Al2O3 Carbon deposition rate (gc.g-1cat. h-1) 0.0011 0.0005 0.0002 0.0003 H2/CO ratios 0.90 0.97 0.93 0.83 90 100 Ni/KIT-6 70 Ni/-Al2O3 60 50 Ni/MCM-41 CO2 conversion (%) CH4 conversion (%) Ni/SBA-15 Ni/SBA-15 80 90 Ni/KIT-6 80 Ni/-Al2O3 70 60 Ni/MCM-41 50 40 0 2 4 0 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Time on stream (h) 2 (a) 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Time on stream (h) (b) Figure 2. The effect of support on CH4 (a) and CO2 (b) conversion over Ni catalysts at 700 C and at GHSV of 52,000 mL h-1g-1. 100 90 Conversion (%) Conversion (%) 100 80 70 60 80 70 60 50 50 40 40 2 4 6 8 10 Pore diameter (nm) 90 500 1000 Surface area (m2/g) 1500 100 CO2 conversion % at 20 h time on stream CH4 conversion (%) (a) 0 12 100 CH4 conversion (%) 90 (b) 90 CH4 conversion % at 20 h time on stream 80 80 Figure 3. CH4 and CO2 conversions (%) versus (a) pore diameter and (b) surface area of SiO2 supported Ni. 70 60 CONCLUSIONS Three different mesoporous molecular sieves SBA-15, 50 MCM-41 and -Al2O3 were used to support Ni and KIT-6, 40 70 catalyse CO2 reforming of CH4. Based on the results obtained 60 the catalytic conversion of CH4 using supported Ni is highly dependent on the nature of support. Among all the supported 50 catalysts tested, Ni/SBA-15 exhibited excellent catalytic 40 2 4 6 8 10 Pore diameter (nm) (a) 12 0 500 1000 Surface area (m2/g) (b) 1500 performance in terms of catalytic conversion and long-term stability. The activity for the SiO2 based catalysts correlated strongly with the surface area and pore diameter of these materials with the degree of CH4 and CO2 conversions observed increasing with decreasing surface area and increasing pore diameter. 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