Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
On “Circular Economy on Sustainable Basis: The Role of Chemical Engineers”
CUChEAA ISBN: 978-81-954649-1-3
December 2022 P a g e | 53 Volume 2, Issue 1
Production of syn-gas by the tri-reforming of methane over Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst
Arisha Sharma and Prakash Biswas
*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
Roorkee-247667, Uttarakhand, India
*Corresponding author: Tel.: (+91)-1332-28-5820
Email: prakash.biswas@ch.iitr.ac.in; prakashbiswas@gmail.com
Abstract
Carbon dioxide and methane are emitted due to the combustion of fossil fuels which causes the greenhouse effect. Tri-
reforming utilizes these anthropogenic gases and converts them into synthesis gas. This study explored the tri-reforming of
methane over Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst prepared by the
wet impregnation technique with different Ni metal loading (5-10 wt.%).
The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N
2
adsorption-desorption, and
temperature-programmed reduction techniques. The performance of these catalysts was evaluated in a packed bed reactor
at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 700-800 °C. The molar feed (CH
4
: CO
2
: H
2
O: O
2
: N
2
) composition of
(1: 0.5: 0.0125: 0.1: 1) was used for each experiment. Results demonstrated over 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst, constant CH
4
conversion of ~55% at both the temperatures (700 °C and 800 °C), and ~99% CO
2
conversion at 800 °C in TRM were
achieved. The optimum H
2
/CO molar ratio of ~(2.6- 2.7) was obtained at 800 °C over both 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
and 10% Ni/ γ-
Al
2
O
3
catalysts.
Keywords: Ni/ γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst, tri-reforming of methane, CO
2
, synthesis gas, H
2
/CO ratio.
1. Introduction
The emission of greenhouse gases causing global
warming is a matter of concern. CH
4
and CO
2
are the
two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases.
Recently proposed, dry-reforming of methane combines
CO
2
and CH
4
to generate syn-gas for clean liquid fuels
and valuable chemicals. However, this process is
endothermic in nature and requires high energy input,
and a significant problem is catalyst deactivation due to
carbon formation. A novel alternative, i.e., tri-reforming
of methane (TRM), has been proposed to overcome these
limitations. TRM is the combination of endothermic
methane steam reforming (Eq. 1), endothermic methane
dry reforming (Eq. 2), and exothermic partial methane
oxidation (Eq. 3)(Song and Pan 2004).
Methane steam reforming (MSR)
CH
4
+ H
2
O ↔ CO + 3H
2
, ΔH
⸰
298
= +206 kJ/mol (1)
Methane dry reforming (MDR)
CH
4
+ CO
2
↔ 2CO + 2H
2
, ΔH
⸰
298
= +247 kJ/mol (2)
Partial methane oxidation (PMO)
CH
4
+ 0.5O
2
↔ CO + 2H
2
, ΔH
⸰
298
= -35.6 kJ/mol (3)
TRM combines all these reactions (Eq. 1-3) to solve the
problems of being highly endothermic and catalyst
deactivation associated with MSR, MDR, and PMO. The
presence of O
2
and H
2
O in TRM is beneficial. PMO
being exothermic makes TRM mild endothermic as it
provides heat energy required for steam and dry
reforming and increases catalyst life by inhibiting coke
formation. In the MDR process, a few side reactions also
occur, such as reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) (Eq. 4),
boudouard (Eq. 5), methane cracking (Eq. 6), and CO
reduction (Eq. 7), etc.
CO
2
+ H
2
↔ CO + H
2
O, ΔH°
298
= 41 kJ/mole (4)
2CO ↔ CO
2
+ C
(s)
, ΔH°
298
= -172 kJ/mole (5)
CH
4
↔ 2H
2
+ C
(s)
, ΔH°
298
= 75 kJ/mole (6)
CO + H
2
↔
C + H
2
O, ΔH°
298
= -131 kJ/mole (7)
The significant advantages of the TRM process is that the
flue gas of the power plant can directly be used as a feed
without purification, and the control of the H
2
/CO molar
ratio in the syngas is also very flexible. However, the
significant challenges associated with the TRM process
include high operating temperature (500-800 °C), coke
formation, catalyst stability and deactivation, and syngas
with a constant H
2
/CO ratio for an extended period. As a
result, the development of a suitable catalyst and the mild
reaction condition process for producing syngas with the
appropriate H
2
/CO mole ratio is highly desirable.
Previous literature indicated that the noble metal-based
catalysts showed better methane and CO
2
conversion
Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
On “Circular Economy on Sustainable Basis: The Role of Chemical Engineers”
CUChEAA ISBN: 987-81-954649-1-3
December 2022 P a g e | 54 Volume 2, Issue 1
with a desirable H
2
/CO ratio of 1.5-2.0 than the non-
noble metals-based catalysts. Noble metals are highly
resistant to carbon deposition and are active (Lai-Zhi et
al. 2012; Schmal et al. 2018). However, despite these
advantages, being expensive and having less supply of
noble smetals restricted its commercialization (García-
Vargas et al. 2012; Lai-Zhi et al. 2012). As a result, many
researchers explored Ni-based catalysts due to their low
cost, high activity, and availability. Kumar et al. (2019)
noticed that 10% Ni/Al
2
O
3
was the most active and
showed high conversion rates for CH
4
and CO
2
with
H
2
/CO molar ratio of 2.27. However, coke deposition
took place at a high temperature of 800°C. Anchieta et al.
(2019) explored the activity of a 5% Ni/ZrO
2
catalyst and
the influence of metal-dispersion and acid-base properties
in the tri-reforming of methane and detected that catalyst
synthesized with ionic liquid showed stable activity
without coke formation. Ni/MgAl
2
O
4
showed the highest
carbon deposition at 750 °C among all the catalysts
tested. Lino et al. (2019) found that Zr and Ce addition
decreased carbon deposition without decreasing carbon
conversion. The effect of catalyst synthesis conditions on
catalyst performance was studied by Fedorova et al.
(2020). It was observed that with the increase in nickel
content in Ni-MgO, the catalytic activity increased,
which was associated with an increase in the specific
metallic surface area in the catalyst. Further, many Ni-
based catalysts were investigated and found stable for a
more extended period with constant activity and syn-gas
yield (Anchieta et al. 2022; Fedorova et al. 2020; Kim et
al. 2019; Kumar et al. 2019; Lino et al. 2020; Singha et
al. 2016; Zhao et al. 2018). This study synthesized a
series of Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalysts with different Ni loading
(5-10 wt.%). Their TRM performance is evaluated in a
tubular packed bed reactor in the temperature range of
700-800 °C.
2. Experimental
2.1. Catalyst preparation
Catalysts with different wt.% Ni metal loading was
prepared by wet impregnation techniques. Basic γ-Al
2
O
3
(Thomas Baker) was chosen as support. Ni(NO
3
)
2
.6H
2
O
(98%, Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd., India) was used as a nickel
metal precursor. Initially, nickel nitrate hexahydrate was
dissolved in distilled water at room temperature under
stirring. Further, the required amount of γ-alumina was
added to the aqueous nickel nitrate solution and well
mixed under constant stirring. The mixture was agitated
for 3 h at 1400 rpm and then dried overnight at 110
o
C in
an air oven. The resulting solid powder was calcined at
850 °C in the muffle furnace for 5 h in the air. The fresh
powder catalysts obtained after calcination were
designated 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
and 10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
.
2.2. Catalyst characterisation
The N
2
adsorption-desorption technique was used to
measure the specific surface area (BET) of the catalyst at
liquid N
2
temperature on Autosorb iQ XR-XR
(Quantachrome, USA). Initially, approximately 30-40 mg
of powder catalyst was taken in a tube and degassed at a
temperature of 200 °C for 2 h under a constant flow of
helium (20 cm
3
/min). Further, the adsorption-desorption
study was performed by varying the P/P
o
range of 0-1 at
the liquid nitrogen temperature.
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) study was performed to
determine the catalyst’s crystalline structure and crystal
parameters. XRD patterns were recorded in the 2θ range
of 5 to 90° with a Bruker diffractometer (AXS D8
Advance, Germany) using a Cu-Kα radiation source
(λ=1.5418 Å) coupled with a Ni filter, 2.2 kW Cu anode,
40 kV/40 mA as an X-ray source. Analysis was done at a
step size of 0.02° and a scan speed of 0.1 second/step.
XRD peaks were identified with the help of X’pert high
score plus software and the joint committee on powder
diffraction standards(JCPDS). The Scherer equation (d=
0.9λ/βcosθ) was used to calculate the average crystallite
size of the catalyst.
To examine the reduction behavior of the catalyst, the
temperature programmed reduction (TPR) was performed
in a Micrometrics instrument (Pulse Chemisorb-2750,
U.S.A.). For TPR analysis, approximately 30-40 mg of
catalyst sample was taken in a U-tube and degassed at a
temperature of 200 °C for 2 h under a constant argon
flow of 20 cm
3
/min. To remove the moisture and volatile
material present in the catalyst if present. Then the
sample was cooled to room temperature under the flow of
argon. Further, argon gas was switched to a mixture of
gas containing 10 vol.% H
2
and 90% argon for the
reduction. The sample temperature was increased from
room temperature to 1000 °C at a heating rate of 10
°C/min under the flow of the mixture gas to reduce the
catalyst. A thermal conductivity detector (TCD)
connected to the outlet of the U-tube continuously
measured the amount of hydrogen consumed.
2.3. Catalyst activity
The catalyst was tested in a tubular-packed bed reactor
(Fig.1). In each experiment, approximately 1gm of fresh
catalyst was placed between the glass wool bed inside the
tubular reactor. Before each experiment, the catalyst was
reduced by a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen gas flow
of 20 ml/min for 2 h at the reduction temperature
investigated in the TPR study. The flow of feed gas
(CH
4
:CO
2
:H
2
O:O
2
:N
2
) was controlled with the help of
mass flow controllers (MFCs) and HPLC pump. Feed gas
was preheated at 300 °C with the help of a pre-heater,
and the mixture was sent to the reactor. Experiments
were performed at a constant feed (CH
4
:CO
2
:H
2
O:O
2
:N
2
)
molar ratio of 1:0.5:0.0125:0.1:1 and atmospheric
pressure. The reaction temperatures varied within the
range of 700-800 °C. The reactor effluents were sent into
the recirculation cooling bath maintained at 5 °C,
followed by a gas-liquid separator. Gaseous and liquid
products were analyzed in online and offline gas
chromatography, respectively. Conversion and H
2
/CO
ratio were calculated with the help of the following
equations:
CH
4
conversion (%) = ( F
CH4, in
- F
CH4, out
)/ F
CH4, in
(8)
CO
2
conversion (%) = ( F
CO2, in
- F
CO2, out
)/ F
CO2, in
(9)
F is the molar flow rate.
Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
On “Circular Economy on Sustainable Basis: The Role of Chemical Engineers”
CUChEAA ISBN: 987-81-954649-1-3
December 2022 P a g e | 55 Volume 2, Issue 1
H
2
/CO ratio = moles of hydrogen produced/ moles of CO
produced (10)
The carbon balance agreed to 100±20%.
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup
of tri-reforming of methane.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Catalyst characterisation
3.1.1. Nitrogen physisorption
The specific surface area, average pore diameter, and
total pore volume of the supports and catalysts were
measured by the nitrogen adsorption-desorption
technique, and the results are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 shows that the surface area of fresh γ-Al
2
O
3
support is 134.4 m
2
/g. The obtained surface area for fresh
γ-Al
2
O
3
support is analogous to the previously reported
value (Zhang and Kaliaguine 2008). After metal
impregnation, the catalyst’s surface area decreased due to
the blockage of pores and the surface coverage of support
by metals (Anchieta et al. 2019; Zhao et al. 2018;
Walker et al. 2018). With the increase in metal loading
from 5 to 10%, the catalyst surface area decreased from
67.6 to 56.6 m
2
/g. The BET surface area of 5% Ni/γ-
Al
2
O
3
obtained in this study is similar to the value
reported in the literature (García-Vargas et al. 2014). A
similar surface area reduction after metal impregnation is
reported earlier (Anchieta et al. 2019).
Fig.2. shows the adsorption-desorption isotherm of the
support and catalysts. The isotherm of γ-Al
2
O
3
support
displayed a Type-IV with an H2-Type hysteresis loop
illustrating the complex structure of pores with an
interconnected network (Urbonavicius et al. 2020).
However, both the catalysts represented Type-IV
isotherm with an H4-Type hysteresis loop that depicted
the pores of slit shape. Fig. 2. suggested that an increase
in Ni-content from 5 to 10 wt.% did not alter the shape of
the isotherm. The isotherm of 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
and 10%
Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst displayed the hysteresis loop in
almost the same relative pressure range of 0.6-0.62
signified the mesopores nature of the catalysts (Zhao,
Ngo, et al. 2018). The volume of N
2
adsorbed is high at
low relative pressure, which exhibited micropores in the
support and both catalysts (Zhao et al. 2018). Table 1
depicts the average pore diameter, and the total pore
volume of the catalysts decreased with metal
impregnation on the support is justified by literature
(Anchieta et al. 2019; Lino et al. 2019).
Table 1: Physio-chemical properties of catalysts
Catalyst
Surface
area
(m
2
/g)
Average
pore
diameter
(nm)
Total
pore
volume
(cm
3
/g)
NiAl
2
O
4
crystallite
size from
XRD (nm)
γ-Al
2
O
3
134.4
5.0
1.6 ×
10
-1
-
5%
Ni/γ-
Al
2
O
3
67.6
7.0
1.2 ×
10
-1
9.2
10%
Ni/γ-
Al
2
O
3
56.6
6.9
9.7
×10
-2
12.3
Figure 2: Adsorption-desorption isotherm of the support
and catalysts.
3.1.2. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study
The XRD pattern (Fig. 3) of γ-Al
2
O
3
exhibited a set of
diffraction peaks at the 2θ value of 38.1°, 42.7°, 48.5°,
56.0°, 64.6°, and 67.5° corresponding to (1 1 2), (2 0 2),
(2 0 3), (2 0 4), (2 0 5), and (2 2 0) crystal planes of
hexagonal Al
2
O
3,
respectively (JCPDS 00-026-0031). In
contrast, patterns of x wt.% Ni/Al
2
O
3
(x = 5, 10)
demonstrated NiAl
2
O
4
cubic structure at 2θ values of
36.9°, 45.1°, 59.6°, and 65.5° corresponding to (3 1 1), (4
0 0), (5 1 1), and (4 4 0) crystal planes, respectively
(JCPDS 01-077-1877). Similar patterns were observed
earlier (Ragupathi et al. 2017 ). The XRD peaks at the 2θ
value of 31.0° and 42.6° represented the (0 0 3), (2 0 2)
crystal planes of the hexagonal Al
2
O
3
(JCPDS 0-013-
0373). In the XRD pattern of x wt.% Ni/Al
2
O
3
(x= 5, 10),
no separate NiO peaks were detected (Kumar et al. 2019).
However, the peaks corresponding to a new phase
NiAl
2
O
4
were detected at the 2θ value of 36.9°, 45.1°,
59.6°, and 65.5° indicating strong metal-support
interaction. The absence of the NiO peaks was due to the
overlapping of Ni/Al
2
O
4
and
NiO peaks (García-Vargas et
al. 2014).
The average crystallite size of NiAl
2
O
4
was calculated
using the Scherer equation (d=0.9λ/βcosθ) based on the
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
N
2
adsorbed
(
cm
3
.g
-1
)
Relative pressure (P/P
o
)
γ-Al
2
O
3
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
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XRD peaks detected at 2θ values of 36.9°, 45.1°, 59.6°,
and 65.5° for both the catalysts. The average crystallite
size of 5% Ni/Al
2
O
3
was observed to be 9.2 nm, and this
average crystallite size increased to 12.3 nm for 10%
Ni/Al
2
O
3
. The increase in average crystallite size with Ni
loading is due to the formation of clusters of Ni particles.
Jiang et al. (2007) reported a Ni crystallite size of 23.5
nm for 7.9% Ni/Al
2
O
3
,
whereas Kumar et al. (2019)
reported 17.0 nm for 10% Ni/Al
2
O
3
.
Figure 3: XRD profiles of the support and catalysts.
3.1.3. Temperature programmed reduction (TPR)
The reduction profile of the support and catalysts with
different Ni metal loading is shown in Fig. 4, and the
reduction temperature is shown in Table 2, respectively.
The γ-alumina was calcined at the same temperature, i.e.,
850 °C. Fig. 4 exhibited that calcined γ-Al
2
O
3
does not
show any reduction peak till 950 °C demonstrating
superior thermal stability (Zhang and Kaliaguine 2008).
The TPR profiles of the catalysts show two reduction
peaks, the low-temperature peak designated the reduction
of NiO to Ni
o,
and the peak at high temperature correlated
to the reduction of the new NiAl
2
O
4
phase formed
(García-Vargas et al. 2014). Low temperature (<500
o
C)
reduction peak is associated with weaker interaction
between the oxide support and metal, whereas a high-
temperature (>500
o
C) reduction peak indicates a
stronger metal-support interaction (Kumar et al. 2019).
With the increase in Ni content, H
2
consumption
increases, and the reduction temperature increases; the
reason can be attributed to the strengthening of metal-
support interaction.
3.2. Catalytic performance
The activity of the catalysts was investigated with an
optimum molar feed (CH
4
: CO
2
: H
2
O: O
2
: N
2
) ratio of
(1: 0.5: 0.0125: 0.1: 1) at 1 atm. pressure in the
temperature range of 700-800 °C. The obtained
conversion of methane, CO
2
and H
2
/CO molar ratio is
depicted in Fig. 5(a), 5(b), and 5(c), respectively. Results
revealed that the CH
4
conversions increased slightly with
the temperature for the 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst. The
conversion varied from 54.6% at 700 °C to 55.5% at 800
°C. However, for 10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst, CH
4
conversion remained constant with temperature.
Figure 4: TPR profiles of the support and catalysts.
Table 2: Reduction properties of catalysts.
Catalyst
Temperature
Low-temperature
peak (°C)
High-temperature
peak (°C)
γ-Al
2
O
3
-
-
5% Ni/ γ-Al
2
O
3
421.3
818.0
10% Ni/ γ-
Al
2
O
3
414.4
844.8
The conversion altered from 48.6% at 700 °C to 48.7% at
800 °C. It was observed with the increase in Ni loading,
and there is a slight decrease in CH
4
conversion, i.e.,
~55% for 5% Ni to ~49% for 10% Ni. This decrease in
conversion with an increase in Ni content can be due to
the development of bigger particles or large clusters,
which was noticeable from the increased crystallite site
with the increment in Ni loading (Table 2). From the
TPR profile (Fig. 4), it was evident that the catalyst
reducibility shifted towards high temperature with the
increase in Ni loading. It has been reported for tri-
reforming reactions; smaller particles are favorable as
they are more active (Singha et al. 2016), making the
catalyst less sensitive towards coke deposition (Lino et
al. 2019) and enhancing the metal-support interaction
(García-Vargas et al. 2012). These are the reasons
justifying that catalysts with 5% Ni loading having a
crystallite size of 9.2 nm showed more CH
4
conversion
than 10% Ni loading having a crystallite size of 12.3 nm.
The detected catalytic activity proved the dependence of
reactant conversion on the size of active metal, as
reported earlier (García-Vargas et al. 2012; Kumar et al.
2019; Singha et al. 2016).
For CO
2
conversion, a similar increasing trend was
obtained for both the catalyst with temperature. In the
presence of a 5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst, CO
2
conversion
increased from ~52% at 700
o
C to almost complete
(~99%) at 800
o
C. However, for 10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst,
CO
2
conversion varied from ~50% at 700
o
C to ~52% at
800 °C. The CO
2
conversion increased with temperature
and reached its maximum value at 800 °C, as methane
dry reforming is endothermic and favorable at high
temperatures (>650 °C) (Singha et al. 2016). For the 5%
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Intensity
(
a.u.
)
Degree (2θ)
¨
¨
·
·
·
·
¨
¨
·
·
·
·
(112)
(202)
(203)
(204)
(205)
(220)
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
γ-Al
2
O
3
· NiAl
2
O
4
(cubic)
¨Al
2
O
3
(hexagonal)
¨
¨
¨
¨
¨
¨
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Hydrogen consumption (a.u.)
Temperature (°C)
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
γ-Al
2
O
3
Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
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CUChEAA ISBN: 987-81-954649-1-3
December 2022 P a g e | 57 Volume 2, Issue 1
Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
catalyst, the
variation in CO
2
conversion was
large; this can be due to the occurrence of a water gas
shift reaction, as it is more prominent at low
temperatures, i.e., 700 °C than at 800 °C. It was noticed
with the increase in Ni loading; the CO
2
conversion
decreased from ~99% for 5% Ni to 52% for 10% Ni. The
decline in CO
2
conversion with increment in Ni loading
can be because of the reduction of the surface area
accessible for the reaction, which is confirmed by the
values reported in Table 1. Another reason for the
decrease in CO
2
conversion is that CO
2
is not only taking
part in the reaction as a reactant but also getting formed
as a product through different side reactions, mainly by
water gas shift reaction.
The effect of temperature on the H
2
/CO molar ratio over
various catalysts is shown in Fig. 5(c). A similar
decreasing trend of the H
2
/CO ratio was obtained over
both catalysts, with temperature. For 5%Ni/ γ-Al
2
O
3
,
H
2
/CO ratio decreased from 3.1 at 700 °C to 2.7 at 800
°C, and for 10%Ni/ γ-Al
2
O
3,
from 5.7 at 700 °C to 2.6 at
800 °C. In TRM, H
2
/CO molar ratio mainly depends
upon the conversion of CO
2
and H
2
O and RWGS reaction
(Song and Pan 2004). The RWGS reaction is
endothermic in nature and promising at high
temperatures, utilizing the formed H
2
with an increase in
temperature to produce CO (Jiang et al. 2007). Methane
dry reforming is also promoted with an increase in
temperature, as shown in Fig. 5(b). These two reactions
predominate at high temperatures and simultaneously
decrease the H
2
/CO ratio (Majewski and Wood 2014;
Singha et al. 2016).
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
gave higher methane and carbon dioxide
conversion at 700 and 800 °C, which contradicts the
statement that higher Ni content led to a higher
conversion of methane reported earlier (Kumar et al.
2019). The primary motive of this work is to synthesize a
catalyst that can produce the syn-gas which can further
be utilized for producing fuels and chemicals. The results
revealed that Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
shows high activity
,
which
discloses its suitability for the tri-reforming process. For
all the data reported in Fig. 5(a), 5(b), and 5(c), the
carbon balance was 100 ± 20%.
Figure 5(a): Effect of temperature on the conversion of
CH
4
over various catalysts.
Figure 5(b): Effect of temperature on the conversion of
CO
2
over various catalysts.
Figure 5(c): Effect of temperature on the H
2
/CO molar
ratio over various catalysts.
4. Conclusions
The performance of Ni-based catalysts was analyzed for
the tri-reforming process. The wet impregnation method
prepared the catalysts for generating syngas by TRM.
XRD confirms the hexagonal structure of the γ-alumina
and the strong metal-support interaction. The
performance of catalysts at 800 °C reveals that Ni/γ-
Al
2
O
3
is suitable for tri-reforming as it produces the
syngas of H
2
/CO molar ratio of ~ (2.7- 3.8). Overall, 5%
Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
was observed to be the best catalyst, with
~55% CH
4
conversion at temperatures of 700 °C and 800
°C and ~99% CO
2
conversion at 800 °C in TRM. The
basic nature of support, metal-support strong interaction,
and reduction of nickel contributed to the better activity
of the catalyst.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to the Science and Engineering
Research Board (SERB), Governmnet of India for
financial support (File No. CRG/2018/002744, Dated 13-
May-2019). The authors kindly acknowledge
the Ministry of Education, Government of India, for
providing student fellowship and the Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, for supporting the
700 800
0
20
40
60
80
100
CH
4
conversion (%)
Temperature (°C)
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
54.6
55.5
48.6 48.7
700 800
0
20
40
60
80
100
CO
2
conversion (%)
Temperature (°C)
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
52.1
99.4
50.0
51.7
700 800
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
H
2
/CO ratio
Temperature (°C)
3.1
5.7
2.7
2.6
5% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
10% Ni/γ-Al
2
O
3
Proceedings of CUChE Alumni Symposium 2022
On “Circular Economy on Sustainable Basis: The Role of Chemical Engineers”
CUChEAA ISBN: 987-81-954649-1-3
December 2022 P a g e | 58 Volume 2, Issue 1
essential resources to conduct the work.
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