CO2 methanation on the catalyst of Ni/MCM-41 promoted with CeO2

Abstract CO 2 as a raw feed combined with renewable hydrogen for the production of useful chemicals and alternative energy products is one of the solutions to environmental and energy problems. In this study, a series of Ni-xCeO 2 /MCM-41 catalysts with a nickel content of 20 wt% were prepared through deposition precipitation method for CO 2 methanation. Different characterization methods, including BET, XRD, TEM, SEM, H 2 -TPR and H 2 -TPD were applied to help explore the influence mechanism of CeO 2 on Ni/MCM-41 in CO 2 methanation. It was found that all CeO 2 -promoted catalysts exhibited enhanced catalytic activity when compared to Ni/MCM-41. The catalyst modified with 20 wt% CeO 2 showed the best catalytic performance, with CO 2 conversion and CH 4 selectivity of 85.6% and 99.8%, respectively, at the temperature of 380 °C under atmospheric pressure. The synergetic effects among Ni 0 active sites, the promoter and the support, including nickel dispersion improvement and increased CO 2 adsorption sites due to the addition of CeO 2 , were considered as important factors for high reactivity of the promoted catalysts. The stability test showed that the promoted catalyst maintained its high reactivity after 30 h.