Investigation of dry reforming of methane over Mo-based catalysts

An investigation of methane dry reforming over Mo–Ni based catalysts is carried out in a fixed bed catalytic reactor at different temperatures. Two Mo–Ni catalysts supported on alumina are prepared with 20%Mo–10%Ni and 20%Mo–2%Ni, respectively, in which the nickel is used for its highly resistance at high temperature during dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction. Experimental results shows that an increase in temperature favours the CH4 conversion and determined a higher H2/CO ratio. A small amount of deposited coke is observed because of the abundant presence of CO2 in the reaction medium and only for 2% Ni catalysts. A kinetic model is proposed for the DRM with Mo–Ni based catalysts, in which the reaction mechanism routes and the operating conditions such as the reaction temperature and the CH4/CO2 molar ratio are accounted for. The results of the mathematical model allow a consistent description of the experimental data, in terms of gas outlet composition. The absence of the methane decomposition reaction, responsible of carbon deposition that is known to lead to catalyst deactivation, is the main result that is adequately predicted by the model.