Abstract
In this work, partial oxidation of methane (POM) was investigated using Mg-Ni-Al (MNA) hydrotalcite promoted CeO2 catalyst in a fixed bed reactor. MNA hydrotalcite was synthesized using the co-precipitation process, while CeO2 was incorporated via the wetness impregnation technique. The CeO2@MNA samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) technique. The catalytic activity of CeO2 promoted MNA (CeO2@MNA) for POM reaction was evaluated for various CeO2 loading kept the feed ratio CH4/O2 = 2 at 850 °C. The catalyst containing 10 wt% cerium loading (10%CeO2@MNA) showed 94% CH4 conversion with H2/CO ratio above 2.0, that is more suitable for FT synthesis. The performance of catalyst is attributed to highly crystalline stable CeO2@MNA with better Ce-MNA interactions withstand for 35 h time on stream. Furthermore, the spent catalyst was examined by TGA, SEM-EDS, and XRD to evaluate the carbon formation and structural changes during the span of reaction time.
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•CeO2@MgNiAl (MNA) hydrotalcite is synthesised for POM reaction.•CeO2 addition over MNA greatly improved the H2/CO ratio.•The catalyst is stable for more than 35 h on POM reaction.•The spent catalyst shows no sign of graphitic carbon after 35 h.