(594d) Synthesis of Silica Supported Ni and Cu Catalyst for Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Synthesis
of Silica Supported Ni and Cu Catalyst for Carbon Dioxide Methanation Reaction

Ahmad
Aheed, Mohd Ali H Saleh Saad*, Anand Kumar*

Department
of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

*
m.saleh@qu.edu.qa,
and akumar@qu.edu.qa

Carbon dioxide is an
undesired byproduct in almost all the energy production routes involving
combustion of hydrocarbons or fossil fuels. CO₂ being one of the
prominent greenhouse gas is understood to have a direct influence of the global
environmental conditions, and in this regard many researchers are exploring the
possible ways to convert CO₂ to hydrocarbons, or other chemicals to
complete the carbon cycle. With an aim of so, CO₂ methanation has
experienced a renewed research interest, especially because of its
thermodynamic favorability under moderate conditions (temperature and
pressure). CO₂ methanation is a combination of two reactions,
reverse water gas shift (RWGS) and CO methanation as [1]:

                           (1)

                              (2)

In
this study we investigate the synthesis of nickel and copper catalyst supported
on silica for CO₂ conversion to methane. The activity and product
selectivity and stability for methanation reaction on Ni/SiO₂ and Cu/SiO₂
catalysts have been evaluated using a flow reactor between 50ºC – 650ºC.
The as-synthesized catalysts were characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM to understand
the structural properties. In addition, the used catalysts after the reaction were
characterized using similar techniques to evaluate the effect of reaction conditions
on active phase and SiO₂ support. As indicated in Fig. 1; the 1%Ni
on SiO₂ catalyst shows good activity for CO₂ conversion
to CH4 till 450ºC, thereafter CH₄ formation decreases and CO
increases and remains the only product at 650ºC. The catalyst shows excellent
stability (Fig. 1b) without any deactivation till 2700 min of TOS at 650ºC. The
other catalysts, 1%Cu on SiO₂ is also promising (fig. not shown),
however it is exclusively selective to CO and no trace of CH₄ was
obtained.  

Figure 1:
Methane conversion on Ni/SiO₂ catalysts, (a) activity and product
yield, (b) stability up to 2700 min TOS

References:

[1] S. Tada, S. Ikeda, N.
Shimoda, T. Honma, M. Takahashi, A. Nariyuki, and S. Satokawa, “Sponge Ni
catalyst with high activity in CO₂ methanation,” Int. J. Hydrogen
Energy, vol. 42, no. 51, pp. 30126–30134, 2017.