Catalytic methanation of syngas over Ni-based catalysts with different supports

Co-precipitation method was selected for the preparation of Ni/Al2O3, Ni/ZrO2 and Ni/CeO2 catalysts, and their performances in methanation were investigated in this study. The structure and surface properties of these catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, H2-TPD, TEM and H2-TPR. The results showed that the catalytic activity at low temperature followed the order: Ni/Al2O3>Ni/ZrO2>Ni/CeO2. Ni/Al2O3 catalyst presented the best catalytic performance with the highest CH4 selectivity of 94.5%. The characterization results indicated that the dispersion of the active component Ni was the main factor affecting the catalytic activity and the one with higher dispersion gave better performance.