Experimental studies of catalyst deactivation due to carbon and sulphur during CO2 reforming of CH4 over Ni washcoated monolith in the presence of H2S

This study presents the CO2 reforming of CH4 over Ni coated monolith catalyst at 800 degrees C and 101.325 kPa. The high CH4 to CO2 ratio employed in this study is similar to the CH4:CO2 ratio of >1 found in biogas. Cordierite monolith samples (0.258 channels per m(2)) washcoated with alumina are used for the experimental purpose. The study considers the combined deactivation effect due to sulphur poisoning and fouling due to carbon deposition. Four different cases with respect to the introduction and removal of H2S are considered. The rate of deactivation due to simultaneous carbon deposition and sulphur poisoning is much faster than the individual poisoning processes. The catalyst shows almost stable operation for 6 h without the presence of H2S in the feed stream. From the conversion studies, it appears that the pre-treatment of catalyst samples with H2S leads to negligible sulphur coverage. The sulphur poisoning effect is also found to be reversible.