Loading Ni/La2O3 on SiO2 for CO methanation from syngas

Abstract The critical problem for CO methanation catalysts to produce synthetic natural gas is deactivation due to carbon deposition and/or sintering of the active components. It was reported that Ni/La 2 O 3 has better resistance to sintering and can eliminate the carbon deposited via lanthanum containing compound. However, the lanthanum oxide has low surface area, mechanical strength and stability. To overcome this problem, a new scheme has been proposed in this study by supporting the perovskite-type oxide of LaNiO 3 on SiO 2 . Nickel and lanthanum ions are evenly dispersed at atomic level in the nanocrystallites of LaNiO 3 , after reduction highly dispersed small Ni nanoparticles were supported on La 2 O 3 which spread on SiO 2 . Thus, Ni/La 2 O 3 was loaded on SiO 2 . The catalysts were characterized by means of BET, XRD, HRTEM + EDX, H 2 chemisorption, ICP, and TGA techniques, and their catalytic performances were measured for CO methanation from syngas to generate CH 4 . The prepared catalyst derived from LaNiO 3 /SiO 2 showed very good catalytic performance, especially showed very high resistance towards carbon deposition and nickel sintering. The NiO-La 2 O 3 /SiO 2 prepared by common incipient-wetness impregnation method was investigated for comparison. This method can be extended for loading other catalysts, for that a lot of metallic ions can be acted as the ions of perovskite-type oxides.