Nickel catalyst supported on SiC incorporated SiO2 for CO2 methanation: Positive effects of dysprosium promoter and microwaves heating method

In this work, Dy-promoted Ni/SiC-SiO2 catalysts with varied Dy loadings (0-1 %) were developed using the wet impregnation method and evaluated for their effectiveness in CO2 methanation. The characterization results reveal that Dy addition can reduce the Ni crystallite size, enhance the dispersion of active phase and increase the catalyst's reducibility. Among the prepared catalysts, the 0.5 %Dy-10 %Ni/SiC-SiO2 demonstrated the highest CH4 selectivity (100 %) and CO2 conversion (73.9 %) at 350 C-degrees owing to its highest basic sites and H-2 chemisorption capacity. The performance of this Dy-promoted catalyst diluted with different amounts of SiC, which was employed as a microwave susceptor and high thermal conductive dilution material, was also investigated in both microwave and electric reactor. Microwave heating leads to higher CO2 conversion compared to electric heating, regardless of reaction temperature and dilution factor due to selective heating and the random occurrence of hot spots, which are usually considered as micro -plasmas in the catalyst bed. However, further increase quantity of SiC decreased both CO2 conversion and CH4 selectivity regardless of heating method. This may be attributed to the appearance of extreme overheating and the absence of gentle overheating with increased amount of SiC in the microwave and electric reactors, respectively. The temperature -programmed oxidation results demonstrated that carbon deposition on the 0.5 %Dy-10 %Ni/SiC-SiO2 catalyst during 30 h of reaction can be significantly suppressed by microwave.