Synthesis and characterization of well dispersed nickel-incorporated SBA-15 and its high activity in syngas methanation reaction

• An original nickel-incorporated catalyst was synthesized by the pH-adjusting method.
• The Ni-S15 catalyst showed high activity with 98% CH4 yield in CO methanation.
• This catalyst can be used in the production of SNG from coal or dry biomass.

Ni-incorporated SBA-15 materials were successfully synthesized by pH adjusting method using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as the pH regulator and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica source. The results of transmission electron microscope (TEM) and H2 pulse chemisorption showed that nickel particles of the Ni-S15 catalysts prepared by pH adjusting method were much finer and more uniform dispersion than those of Ni/S15 catalyst prepared by traditional impregnation method. The nickel dispersions of Ni-S15(pH8) and Ni/S15 were 3.6% and 2.5%, respectively. In addition, the pH value strongly affected the amount of nickel introduced in the silica framework. The catalytic performances were also investigated for synthetic natural gas (SNG) production via syngas methanation reaction. The Ni-S15(pH8) catalyst prepared by pH adjusting method achieved the best activity with 100% CO conversion and 98.6% CH4 yield at 350 °C, 0.3 MPa and 15000 mL/g/h. Meanwhile, the Ni-S15(pH8) catalyst possessed excellent stability and high-temperature-resistant performance due to the strong interaction between NiO and support.

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