CO2 Reforming of Methane to Syngas over Ni and Ni-Pd Bimetallic-silica Nanocomposite Catalysts

The carbon dioxide reforming of methane over NiO-SiO2 and NiPd-SiO2 was investigated on fixed-bed computer controlled quartz reactor at different reaction conditions such as temperatures, gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) time-on-stream (TOS). It was observed that incorporation of very small amount of Pd by replacing Ni gives a very higy durability of the catalysts. Preparation of Ni-Pd bi-metallic catalyst supported on silica by post synthesis treatment showed very good stability and catalytic activity with very less or negligible carbon deposition on catalyst for the dry reforming of methane reaction. The post synthetic incorporation of Pd may stabilize the structure of the main active site on Ni surface for methane decomposition, preventing the deactivation of the Ni catalyst caused by sintering or loss of nickel crystallites.