Papers by Author: A.E. Abasaeed

Abstract: CH4 and CO2 are greenhouse gases. Hence, their emission to the atmosphere must be controlled to avoid the global warming. Dry reforming of methane could provide a valuable tool in alleviating this problem as well as producing synthesis gas. This process is hampered by rapid catalyst deactivation due to carbon deposition and sintering of both the support and active metal. The presented study focuses on the experimental investigation the effect of addition of Calcium promoter to 1%Ni catalysts supported on a mixed 80%α-Al2O3 and 20%TiO2-P25 support. The performance of the developed catalyst was quantified by determining CH4 and CO2 conversions, synthesis gas ratio (H2/CO) and stability. Spent and fresh catalysts were characterized by TGA, SEM and EDS. Time on stream stability tests of the promoted catalyst showed that addition of limited amounts of Ca promoter would reduce carbon formation.

Abstract: The catalytic reforming of methane with carbon dioxide using Pd promoter on 1% Ni/20%TiO2-P25+80%α-Al2O3 was investigated. An experimental study was carried out using the catalyst prepared by impregnation method. The catalysts were dried at 120°C and calcined at 900°C. The reforming reactions were carried out using CO2/CH4/N2 feed ratio of 5/5/1, F/W=44 ml/min.gcat and reaction temperature of 700°C. The effect of nominal load of Pd ranging from 0.0 to 0.48 was studied by evaluating catalyst activity, stability, coke and (H2/CO) ratio. The prepared catalysts were tested in micro reactor at atmospheric pressure. The effluents were analyzed using an online gas chromatography equipped with a thermal conductivity detector. EDS and TGA for the fresh and spent catalysts were evaluated. Results indicate that the addition of small amounts of Pd is preferable in terms of activity and carbon deposition than higher Pd loading. For instance, 0.01%Pd gives a conversion of 78.4 for CH4 and 4.9% deactivation factor. While, 0.48%Pd gives a conversion of 75.6 for CH4 and 29.9% deactivation factor. Thus higher loading of Pd causes the catalyst to show poor performance with lower conversion and higher carbon formations. It can be concluded that Pd promoter has an optimal concentration with respect to the active metal of the catalyst beyond which the performance deteriorates.