Dry reforming of methane over Ni/MgO-Al2O3 catalysts prepared by two-step hydrothermal method

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane has been investigated on a series of Ni/MgO-Al2O3 catalysts prepared by a simple two-step hydrothermal method. The sheet-like Ni/MgO-Al2O3 (15%) catalyst afforded as high as 52% CH4 conversion, which is almost six times higher than that of original Ni/MgO catalyst, with excellent stability during reaction, at relatively higher space velocity (6 × 105 cm3
- g cat −1H−1) and lower reaction temperature (923 K). The effects of different ratio of Mg and Al have been investigated to understand the catalytic activity and coke formation for the obtained catalysts. The characterization results show that the addition Al2O3 to MgO would contribute to forming MgAl2O4 phase, which is stable and could effectively increase the CO2 adsorption due to the increased basic sites on the surface of catalyst, contributing to higher catalytic activity and better stability of this kind of catalyst during the dry reforming reaction. The catalysts were characterized by different techniques, such as BET, H2-TPR, XRD, SEM, CO2-TPD, TG-DTA and TEM analysis.