Ni Monolith Catalysts For Partial Oxidation Of Methane To Syngas

In the utilization of natural gas, research on the partial oxidation of natural gasinto syngas has been paid more and more attention. Recent experimental reportsconcentrated on the study of catalysts, especially supported catalysts, which are notsuitable for the industrial application as expected. In this work, pure metal nickelmonolithic catalysts were found suitable for industrial application due to their highactivity and good stability in the reaction.Partial oxidation of methane reaction, catalyzed by two kinds of monolithiccatalysts made of pure metal nickel spheres of different diameter, has been studied inboth a tubular and a double-tube reactor. Activity, selectivity and stability of the twokinds of catalysts have been observed at different feed ratios of CH4 to O2 anddifferent gas hourly space velocities. Also, the effect of different reactor configurationon the reaction has been studied in the experiment.It has been demonstrated that two kinds of catalysts have considerable activity,selectivity and stability. Over the two catalysts, with the increase of n(CH4)/n(O2)ratio CH4 conversion decreases, and CO and H2 selectivity increase. With the increaseof gas hourly space velocities, CH4 conversion, CO and H2 selectivity all increase。Reduction of diameter of nickel sphere can improve the activity and selectivityof catalyst.The activity of the catalyst is greatly influenced by the ratio of length anddiameter. Higher temperature of furnace increases the activity of the catalyst.The activity of the Nickel monolithic catalyst can be recovered rapidly afterpoisoning by sulfur.The activity of nickel monolithic catalyst coated with 5wt% Rh is not apparentlyhigher than pure nickel monolithic catalyst.