Experimental Study on Dry Reforming of Biogas for Syngas Production over Ni-Based Catalysts

[Image: see text] Syngas production from dry reforming of biogas (DRB) is studied experimentally in this work. Ni/Al(2)O(3), Pt/Al(2)O(3), and Pt-Ni/Al(2)O(3) are used as catalysts to examine the effect of CO(2) content in biogas and H(2)O addition on DRB performance for reaction temperatures in the 600–800 °C range. It is found that the bimetallic Pt–Ni catalyst exhibits the best activity and thermal stability among the three types of catalysts studied due to better carbon deposition resistance. Because CO(2) functions as the oxidant in combustion, CH(4) conversion is enhanced when the biogas contains more CO(2). One hundred percent CO(2) conversion can be reached for biogas containing a less amount of CO(2) at high temperatures. With H(2)O addition in DRB, the steam reforming of methane (SRM) reaction is the dominant reaction, resulting in higher H(2) and CO yields with biogas containing lesser amounts of CO(2). However, lower CH(4) conversion and negative CO(2) conversion do result. With higher CO(2) content in the biogas, higher CH(4) and CO(2) conversions can be obtained. Lower yields of H(2) and CO are obtained due to less SRM dominance. With H(2)O addition in biogas, the H(2)/CO ratio with a value greater than 1 can be obtained from DRB. It is also found that the H(2)/CO ratio with a value of 2.1 can be obtained for reactant composition with a molar ratio of CH(4)/CO(2)/H(2)O = 1:0.25:1 and reaction temperature of 800 °C.