Effect of support on the catalytic activity of Ni-based catalysts for low-temperature CO and CO2 methanation

Methanation reactions of CO and CO2 to Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) through hydrogenation process is a long-established method, but recently, the scientific interest is receiving growing interest as a practical method for carbon dioxide reduction and a tool for renewable energy storage. In this work, the methanation of CO and CO2 mixture was investigated over Ni catalysts supported on Al2O3, Y2O3, MgO and CeO2 metal oxides. Catalysts with different Ni content (7-35 wt.%) were synthesized by the solution combustion synthesis (SCS) and characterized by N2 physisorption, XRD, H2-TPR, CO2-TPD, XPS, UV-Vis DRS, and TEM. Methanation activity tests ((H2-CO2)/(CO+CO2)=3) were carried out at atmospheric pressure varying temperature (TSET=250-600 °C) and space velocity (GHSV=10,000-50,000 h-1). Stability tests over 200 h of time-on-stream were also performed.