Syngas Production via CO2 Reforming of Methane over SrNiO3 and CeNiO3 Perovskites

The development of a transition-metal-based catalyst with concomitant high activity and stability due to its distinguishing characteristics, yielding an abundance of active sites, is considered to be the bottleneck for the dry reforming of methane (DRM). This work presents the catalytic activity and durability of SrNiO3 and CeNiO3 perovskites for syngas production via DRM. CeNiO3 exhibits a higher specific surface area, pore volume, number of reducible species, and nickel dispersion when compared to SrNiO3. The catalytic activity results demonstrate higher CH4 (54.3%) and CO2 (64.8%) conversions for CeNiO3, compared to 22% (CH4 conversion) and 34.7% (CO2 conversion) for SrNiO3. The decrease in catalytic activity after replacing cerium with strontium is attributed to a decrease in specific surface area and pore volume, and nickel active sites covered with strontium carbonate. The stability results reveal the deactivation of both the catalysts (SrNiO3 and CeNiO3) but SrNiO3 showed more deactivation than CeNiO3, as demonstrated by deactivation factors. The catalyst deactivation is mainly attributed to carbon deposition and these findings are verified by characterizing the spent catalysts.

Automated summary

This study compared the catalytic activity and stability of SrNiO3 and CeNiO3 perovskites in dry reforming of methane (DRM), with CeNiO3 showing higher activity and durability. CeNiO3 has a higher specific surface area, pore volume, and number of reducible species compared to SrNiO3, resulting in higher conversions of CH4 and CO2. The deactivation of both catalysts is mainly attributed to carbon deposition, with SrNiO3 exhibiting more deactivation than CeNiO3.