Performance of Ni/CeO2 catalysts for selective CO methanation in hydrogen-rich gas

• 9.1 wt.% Ni/CeO2 catalyst reduced the CO concentration to less than 10 ppm.
• Small (20–80 Å) metallic nickel crystallites provided good activity of the catalysts.
• Stable chlorine species maintained high selectivity relevant to CO.

Selective CO methanation in H2-rich gas mixture containing 10 vol.% H2O and 20 vol.% CO2 was investigated over chlorine doped 1.8–46.1 wt.% Ni/CeO2 catalysts. BET, XRD, TEM, EDX microchemical analysis and XPS techniques were used for catalyst characterization. Among the catalysts studied, the 9.1 wt.% Ni/CeO2 catalyst with the surface Cl/Ce atomic ratio of 0.15 was the most effective. This catalyst provided the reducing of the CO concentration in H2-rich gas to less than 10 ppm over a wide temperature interval (250–320 °C) keeping the selectivity high (>50%). It was shown that ceria-supported small (20–80 Å) nickel-containing particles provided good activity, while stable chlorine species maintained high selectivity of the catalyst.

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