CO2 methanation on the catalyst of Ni/MCM-41 promoted with CeO2.

CO2 as a raw feed combined with renewable hydrogen for the production of useful chemicals and alternative energy products is one of the solutions to environmental and energy problems. In this study, a series of Ni-xCeO2/MCM-41 catalysts with a nickel content of 20wt% were prepared through deposition precipitation method for CO2 methanation. Different characterization methods, including BET, XRD, TEM, SEM, H2-TPR and H2-TPD were applied to help explore the influence mechanism of CeO2 on Ni/MCM-41 in CO2 methanation. It was found that all CeO2-promoted catalysts exhibited enhanced catalytic activity when compared to Ni/MCM-41. The catalyst modified with 20wt% CeO2 showed the best catalytic performance, with CO2 conversion and CH4 selectivity of 85.6% and 99.8%, respectively, at the temperature of 380°C under atmospheric pressure. The synergetic effects among Ni0 active sites, the promoter and the support, including nickel dispersion improvement and increased CO2 adsorption sites due to the addition of CeO2, were considered as important factors for high reactivity of the promoted catalysts. The stability test showed that the promoted catalyst maintained its high reactivity after 30h.