Recent surge in global energy demands for clean fuels will lead to an 18% increase in the hydrogen production by 2040 (1-2). The dry reforming of methane is among the promising approaches for hydrogen production in support of the decarbonization of gas production plants. Although extending dry reforming towards C2-C4 components is critical towards increasing CO2 utilization and increasing syngas production, the conversion of such gases remains challenging with limited yields (3-5). Earlier studies demonstrated that the C-C bond dissociation is the rate determining step of propane dry reforming (6), producing byproducts of methane, ethane, and ethylene which exhibit different thermodynamics (7). This study investigated the effect of using multiple trimetallic oxide catalysts based on the reactive support of Zr-Ti oxide for the dry reforming of propane. Multiple basic and transition metal oxide were impregnated separately into Zr-Ti oxide support. The synthesized trimetallic oxide catalysts exhibited reductions in surface acidity strength along with an increase of basic surface sites due to the addition of third metal oxide. Selected ratios of CO2/propane were studied to promote enhanced syngas formation from the C-C bond dissociation of propane. Utilizing trimetallic catalysts increased CO and H2 yield from propane conversion compared to bimetallic Zr-Ti oxide. The selectivity towards H2 and CO increased when using the trimetallic catalysts consisting of Fe and Be over Zr-Ti, exhibiting the highest propane dry reforming conversions of 84-97%, respectively. The presentation will discuss the results from this recent study on the utilization of trimetallic oxide catalysts to overcome limitations in the dry reforming of propane and the promotion of C-C bond dissociation of propane to maximize syngas production.
References:
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[7] V. I. Savchenko, Y. S. Zimin, A. V Nikitin, I. V Sedov, and V. S. Arutyunov, “Utilization of CO2 in non-catalytic dry reforming of C1--C4 hydrocarbons,” J. CO2 Util., vol. 47, p. 101490, 2021.
Scientist specialist in Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center