(310c) Methane Dry Reforming (MDR) with the Ni-Ugso Catalyst: Kg-Lab Scale Tests at Industrial H2 Production Conditions

This work belongs to a larger endeavor aimed at studying the performance and the stability of a patent pending hydrocarbons reforming spinellized nickel catalyst prepared from an ilmenite metallurgical residue. Recently published results from experiments carried out with this catalyst exhibited high hydrogen production selectivity during methane steam, dry and autothermal (CO₂ and O₂) reforming and stability over time-on-stream (TOS).

At the lab-sale barometric conditions and at relatively lower severity than the prevailing industrial regimes, that is T=810 °C, space velocity of 3400 mL/h.g_cat and molar CO₂/CH₄=1.2, Ni-UGSO gives a stable methane conversion of 92% over 168h TOS. In this DRM reaction optimization study the best performances are obtained with 10-13wt% Ni load.

This work focuses on scaling up the process by a factor of 1000 (from g-lab to kg-lab scale). Various reforming regimes are tested but this work presents the endeavor on DRM, which aims at proving that the new catalyst (Ni-UGSO) can contribute in rendering DRM a commercially viable alternative to the prevailing H₂ production processes from natural gas steam reforming. The main challenges are to prove that:

• This much cheaper catalytic formulation (1) can be produced in forms usually used commercially by means of standard protocols and (2) has at least the same efficiency, robustness and life cycle characteristics with the best commercially available reforming catalysts;
• The DRM proposed is at least as effective as steam reforming.

This work presents (a) the scale-up calculations and criteria used based on the lab-scale results; (b) the production of the catalyst in pellets as well as their critical mechanical properties for its eventual use in industrial fixed bed reactors; (c) the kg-lab set-up and operation protocol and (d) the results at kg-lab scale towards answering the above challenges.

Full mass balances, statistical validation of the results and full analyses of the products and the catalysts (fresh and used) are included. BET, SEM-EDXS and XRD analyses are combined to provide data regarding the behavior and aging of the catalyst at conditions typically used in industry for accelerated aging.