The catalytic activity of the partial oxidation reforming reaction for hydrogen production over 10% Ni supported on high and low surface area alumina and zirconia was investigated. The reforming reactions, under atmospheric pressure, were performed with a feed molar ratio of CH₄/O₂ = 2.0. The reaction temperature was set to 450–650 °C. The catalytic activity, stability, and carbon formation were determined via TGA, TPO, Raman, and H₂ yield. The catalysts were calcined at 600 and 800 °C. The catalysts were prepared via the wet-impregnation method. Various characterizations were conducted using BET, XRD, TPR, TGA, TPD, TPO, and Raman. The highest methane conversion (90%) and hydrogen yield (72%) were obtained at a 650 °C reaction temperature using Ni-Al-H-600, which also showed the highest stability for the ranges of the reaction temperatures investigated. Indeed, the time-on-stream for 7 h of the Ni-Al-H-600 catalyst displayed high activity and a stable profile when the reaction temperature was set to 650 °C.

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) over an Ni-based catalyst is an innovative research area due to the growing environmental awareness about mitigating global warming gases (CH₄ and CO₂) and creating a greener route of synthesis. Herein, 5% Ni supported on ZrO₂ obtained from various sources was prepared by the impregnation method. The catalysts were calcined at 600, 700, and 800 °C. Furthermore, Ni-RC stabilized with MgO, SiO₂, TiO₂, and Y₂O₃ were tested. Characterization techniques employed comprise the N₂ physisorption, infrared spectroscopy, Raman, thermogravimetric analysis, XRD, and TEM. The results of the present study indicated that the ZrO₂ support source had a profound effect on the overall performance of the process. The best catalyst Ni-RC gave an average conversion of CH₄ and CO₂ of 61.5% and 63.6% and the least deactivation of 10.3%. The calcination pretreatment differently influenced the catalyst performance. When the average methane conversion was higher than 40%, increasing the calcination temperature decreased the activity. While for the low activity catalysts with an average methane conversion of less than 40% the impact of the calcination temperature did not constantly decrease with the temperature rise. The stabilization of Ni-RC denoted the preference Y₂O₃ stabilized catalyst with average values of CH₄ and CO₂ conversion of about 67% and 72%, respectively. The thorough study and fine correlation will be advantageous for technologically suitable Ni-15Y-RC catalysts for DRM.

Dry reforming of CH₄ was conducted over promoted Ni catalysts, supported on mesoporous gamma-alumina. The Ni catalysts were promoted by various metal oxides (CuO, ZnO, Ga₂O₃, or Gd₂O₃) and were synthesized by the incipient wetness impregnation method. The influence of the promoters on the catalyst stability, coke deposition, and H₂/CO mole ratio was investigated. Stability tests were carried out for 460 min. The H₂ yield was 87% over 5Ni+1Gd/Al, while the CH₄ and CO₂ conversions were found to decrease in the following order: 5Ni+1Gd/Al > 5Ni+1Ga/Al > 5Ni+1Zn/Al > 5Ni/Al > 5Ni+1Cu/Al. The high catalytic performance of 5Ni+1Gd/Al, 5Ni+1Ga/Al, and 5Ni+1Zn/Al was found to be closely related to their contents of NiO species, which interacted moderately and strongly with the support, whereas free NiO in 5Ni+1Cu/Al made it catalytically inactive, even than 5Ni/Al. The 5Ni+1Gd/Al catalyst showed the highest CH₄ conversion of 83% with H₂/CO mole ratio of ~1.0.

Nickel catalysts supported on zirconium oxide and modified by various amounts of lanthanum with 10, 15, and 20 wt.% were synthesized for CO₂ reforming of methane. The effect of La₂O₃ as a promoter on the stability of the catalyst, the amount of carbon formed, and the ratio of H₂ to CO were investigated. In this study, we observed that promoting the catalyst with La₂O₃ enhanced catalyst activities. The conversions of the feed, i.e., methane and carbon dioxide, were in the order 10La₂O₃ > 15La₂O₃ > 20La₂O₃ > 0La₂O₃, with the highest conversions being about 60% and 70% for both CH₄ and CO₂ respectively. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis showed that the surface area of the catalysts decreased slightly with increasing La₂O₃ doping. We observed that 10% La₂O₃ doping had the highest specific surface area (21.6 m²/g) and the least for the un-promoted sample. The higher surface areas of the promoted samples relative to the reference catalyst is an indication of the concentration of the metals at the mouths of the pores of the support. XRD analysis identified the different phases available, which ranged from NiO species to the monoclinic and tetragonal phases of ZrO₂. Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) analysis showed that the addition of La₂O₃ lowered the activation temperature needed for the promoted catalysts. The structural changes in the morphology of the fresh catalyst were revealed by microscopic analysis. The elemental compositions of the catalyst, synthesized through energy dispersive X-ray analysis, were virtually the same as the calculated amount used for the synthesis. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of spent catalysts showed that the La₂O₃ loading of 10 wt.% contributed to the gasification of carbon deposits and hence gave about 1% weight-loss after a reaction time of 7.5 h at 700 °C.

Development of a transition metal based catalyst aiming at concomitant high activity and stability attributed to distinguished catalytic characteristics is considered as the bottleneck for dry reforming of methane (DRM). This work highlights the role of modifying zirconia (ZrO₂) and alumina (Al₂O₃) supported nickel based catalysts using lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃) varying from 0 to 20 wt% during dry reforming of methane. The mesoporous catalysts with improved BET surface areas, improved dispersion, relatively lower reduction temperatures and enhanced surface basicity are identified after La₂O₃ doping. These factors have influenced the catalytic activity and higher hydrogen yields are found for La₂O₃ modified catalysts as compared to base catalysts (5 wt% Ni-ZrO₂ and 5 wt% Ni-Al₂O₃). Post-reaction characterizations such as TGA have showed less coke formation over La₂O₃ modified samples. Raman spectra indicates decreased graphitization for La₂O₃ catalysts. The 5Ni-10La₂O₃-ZrO₂ catalyst produced 80% hydrogen yields, 25% more than that of 5Ni-ZrO₂. 5Ni-15La₂O₃-Al₂O₃ gave 84% hydrogen yields, 8% higher than that of 5Ni-Al₂O₃. Higher CO₂ activity improved the surface carbon oxidation rate. From the study, the extent of La₂O₃ loading is dependent on the type of oxide support.

Methane Dry Reforming is one of the means of producing syngas. CeNi_0.9Zr_0.1O₃ catalyst and its modification with yttrium were investigated for CO₂ reforming of methane. The experiment was performed at 800 °C to examine the effect of yttrium loading on catalyst activity, stability, and H₂/CO ratio. The catalyst activity increased with an increase in yttrium loading with CeNi_0.9Zr_0.01Y_0.09O₃ catalyst demonstrating the best activity with CH₄ conversion >85% and CO₂ conversion >90% while the stability increased with increases in zirconium loading. The specific surface area of samples ranged from 1–9 m²/g with a pore size of 12–29 nm. The samples all showed type IV isotherms. The XRD peaks confirmed the formation of a monoclinic phase of zirconium and the well-crystallized structure of the perovskite catalyst. The Temperature Program Reduction analysis (TPR) showed a peak at low-temperature region for the yttrium doped catalyst while the un-modified perovskite catalyst (CeNi_0.9Zr_0.1O₃) showed a slight shift to a moderate temperature region in the TPR profile. The Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) curve showed a weight loss step in the range of 500–700 °C, with CeNi_0.9Zr_0.1O₃ having the least carbon with a weight loss of 20%.