Tri-reforming of methane over Ni@SiO2 catalyst

A nickel-silica core@shell catalyst was applied for a methane tri-reforming process in a fixed-bed reactor. To determine the optimal condition of the tri-reforming process for production of syngas appropriate for methanol synthesis the effect of reaction temperature (550–750 °C), CH4:H2O molar ratio (1:0–3.0) and CH4:O2 molar ratio (1:0–0.5) in the feedstock was investigated. CH4 conversion rate and H2/CO ratio in the produced syngas were influenced by the feedstock composition. Increasing the amount of steam above the proportion of CH4:H2O 1:0.5 reduced the H2:CO molar ratio in produced syngas to ∼1.5. Increasing oxygen partial pressure improved methane conversion to 90% at 750 °C. At low ∼550 °C reaction temperature the tri-reforming process was not effective with low hydrogen production (H2 yield ∼20%) and very low <5% CO2 conversion. Increasing reaction temperature increased hydrogen yield to ∼85% at 750 °C. From all the tested reaction conditions the optimal for tri-reforming over the 11%Ni@SiO2 catalyst was: feed composition with molar ratio CH4:CO2:H2O:O2:He 1:0.5:0.5:0.1:0.4 at T = 750 °C. The results were explained in the context of characterisation of the catalysts used. The obtained results showed that the tri-reforming process can be applied for production of syngas with composition suitable for methanol synthesis.