Study of Ni⁽⁰⁾/La₂O₃ perovskite coated on monolith substrates as a promising catalyst for CO₂ dry reforming with steam reforming of methane in syn-gas production

Coated monolith/foam catalysts are promising materials for chemistry applications due to structured reactor configuratiions providing low expansion coefficient, good thermal stability and low pressure loss. In this study, powedered Ni(0)/La2O3 catalysts in perovskite structures, were deposited on cordierite monolith substrates (2MgO-2Al2O3-5SiO2) by dip-coating method. The catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, XRD, TPR-H2 analysis. The activity of structured catalysts with various powder loadings (4, 8, 12, 20 and 30 wt %) were evaluated in combined Steam-CO2 reforming reaction (CH4/CO2/H2O = 2/1/2 vol%) at  GHSV = 60.000 h-1. XRD and TPR results showed that the active phase LaNiO3 were mainly Ni and La2O3 distributed on the surface of cordierite channels after air calcination of 850oC, 3 hours and  hydrogen reduction of 600oC, 2 hours . The conversion of methane and CO2 on monolith catalysts, with proper active sites loadings of 12 – 20 wt%, were close to 80 vol% at 800oC. At the same reaction amount of active sites, the feedstock conversion on LaNiO3/monolith (12 %wt LaNiO3/monolith) was significantly higher than on corresponding powdered type, respectively 1.6 times of CH4, 1.8 times of CO2 conversion.