(702a) Nano-Engineered Ni Catalyst for Tri-Reforming of Methane

Tri-reforming of methane has been proposed to utilize the components from a direct flue gas without CO₂ separation step with desirable H₂/CO product ratio of 2. The activity of a tri-reforming catalyst increases with an active site depending on metal content and/or size. However, the catalyst can lead to sintering of metal particles during the highly endothermic reaction such as dry or steam reforming of methane reactions. In this study, we prepared the core-shell structure of Ni@CeO₂ catalyst, and applied to the try-reforming of methane. CeO₂ exhibits high oxygen vacancies with reversible valence change property (Ce⁴⁺/Ce³⁺), which is an active site in reaction accompanying CO₂. The prepared catalysts were characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and H₂-temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). Preliminary results showed that the core-shell structure prevents the activation of methane onto the Ni surface. Therefore, diffusion of methane through the CeO₂ shell should be increased to obtain higher activity in tri-reforming.