Hydrogen production via reforming of biogas over nanostructured Ni/Y catalyst: Effect of ultrasound irradiation and Ni-content on catalyst properties and performance

•Synthesis of nanostructured Ni/Y catalyst by sonochemical and impregnation methods.•Enhancement of size distribution and active phase dispersion by employing sonochemical method.•Evaluation of biogas reforming over Ni/Y catalyst with different Ni-loadings.•Preparation of highly active and stable catalyst with low Ni content for biogas reforming.•Getting H2/CO very close to equilibrium ratio by employing sonochemical method.

The effect of ultrasound irradiation and various Ni-loadings on dispersion of active phase over zeolite Y were evaluated in biogas reforming for hydrogen production. X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, Fourier transform infrared analysis and TEM analysis were employed to observe the characteristics of nanostructured catalysts. The characterizations implied that utilization of ultrasound irradiation enhanced catalyst physicochemical properties including high dispersion of Ni on support, smallest particles size and high catalyst surface area. The reforming reactions were carried out at GHSV = 24 l/g.h, P = 1 atm, CH4/CO2 = 1 and temperature range of 550–850 °C. Activity test displayed that ultrasound irradiated Ni(5 wt.%)/Y had the best performance and the activity remained stable during 600 min. Furthermore, the proposed reaction mechanism showed that there are three major reaction channels in biogas reforming.

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