A study on the reforming of natural gas with steam, oxygen and carbon dioxide to produce syngas for methanol feedstock

Reforming of natural gas with steam, oxygen and carbon dioxide to produce feedstock gases for methanol synthesis with lower energy consumption has been investigated over La2O3 or CeO3 promoted Ni/Al2O3 catalysts by using a fixed-bed flow apparatus as well as by XRD and SEM technique. The Ni/Al2O3 catalysts promoted with additives were prepared either by the co-impregnation method or by the consecutive impregnation method. The results demonstrated that the bimetallic Ni-Pt/Al2O3 catalyst shows higher activity than that of individual Ni/Al2O3 or Pt/Al2O3 catalyst, and the activity of the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst promoted with CeO3 or La2O3 is higher than that of the unpromoted Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. The Ni/Al2O3 catalyst promoted with La2O3 is more active and stable than the catalyst promoted with CeO2. The catalyst promoted with 2% La2O3 remained stable over 240 h with high natural gas conversions and the value of R was approximately 2. The XRD and SEM results show that the addition of La2O3 to the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst can enhance surface Ni dispersion. The improvement in activity and stability of the catalyst Was partly attributed to the promotion in higher Ni dispersion. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.