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.

Yttria modified zirconia (YZ) supported on 5 wt % of Ni-based catalysts promoted with ceria (1–3 wt %) were prepared by the impregnation process to investigate their performance for dry reforming of methane. The reforming reactions, conducted at 700 °C and at atmospheric pressure using a CO₂/CH₄/N₂ fixed feed ratio of 3/3/1, with a total flow rate of 70 mL/min, revealed that the ceria-promoted catalysts (xCe–Ni–YZ; x = 1–3 wt %) enhanced the CH₄ and CO₂ conversions as compared to the reference catalyst (Ni–YZ). A CO₂ conversion of 85% was exhibited by the 3Ce–Ni–YZ catalyst. Despite increased conversions, xCe–Ni–YZ catalysts showed more amounts of carbon deposition as evidenced by the values of TGA, and hence were found to be less stable as compared to the reference Ni–YZ catalyst. The used and fresh catalysts were characterized by BET, H₂-TPR, XRD, TEM, Raman, TPD, and TGA. TEM images displayed nanoparticle sizes of Ni in the fresh catalysts, while carbon filaments were formed on the spent catalysts. The CO₂-TPD, H₂-TPR, and BET results revealed the existence of only weak and moderate basic sites, the increase of total hydrogen consumption, and the surface area values with the addition of the Ce promoter, respectively. The TGA analysis showed that the Ce promoter increased the carbon deposition, while the Raman results indicated the dominance of crystallinity due to the graphitized carbon.

A promising method to reduce global warming has been methane reforming with CO₂, as it combines two greenhouse gases to obtain useful products. In this study, Ni-supported catalysts were synthesized using the wet impregnation method to obtain 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-5239), 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-6175), 5%Ni/SiO₂, 5%Ni/MCM41, and 5%Ni/SBA15. The catalysts were tested in dry reforming of methane at 700 °C, 1 atm, and a space velocity of 39,000 mL/gcat h, to study the interaction of Ni with the supports, and evaluation was based on CH₄ and CO₂ conversions. 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-6175) and 5%Ni/SiO₂ gave the highest conversion of CH₄ (78 and 75%, respectively) and CO₂ (84 and 82%, respectively). The catalysts were characterized by some techniques. Ni phases were identified by X-ray diffraction patterns. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis showed different surface areas of the catalysts with the least being 4 m²/g and the highest 668 m²/g belonging to 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-5239) and 5%Ni/SBA15, respectively. The reduction profiles revealed weak NiO-supports interaction for 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-5239), 5%Ni/MCM41, and 5%Ni/SBA15; while strong interaction was observed in 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-6175) and 5%Ni/SiO₂. The 5%Ni/Al₂O₃(SA-6175) and 5%Ni/SiO₂ were close with respect to performance; however, the former had a higher amount of carbon deposit, which is mostly graphitic, according to the conducted thermal analysis. Carbon deposits on 5%Ni/SiO₂ were mainly atomic in nature.