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.

Catalytic methane decomposition is studied in a fixed bed reactor. Two sets of bimetallic catalysts are employed, namely: 30%Fe-X%Ce/Al₂O₃ and 30%Fe-X%Co/Al₂O₃, and compared with monometallic 30%Fe/Al₂O₃ catalyst. The effect of promoting Fe with Ce and Co and reduction temperature are investigated. The results reveal that Ce addition has shown a negative impact on H₂ yield while a positive effect on H₂ yield and catalyst stability are observed with Co addition. In terms of number of moles of produced hydrogen per active sites, Fe/Al₂O₃ has shown a higher number of moles of hydrogen compared to bimetallic catalysts. The catalyst reduced at 500 °C exhibits better activity as compared to the catalyst reduced at 950 °C. Carbon nano-tubes are deposited on the catalyst within the range of 14–73 nm diameter. Two types of carbon nanotubes are detected: Cα and Cγ.

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.

H₂ production through dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a hot topic amidst growing environmental and atom-economy concerns. Loading Ni-based reducible mixed oxide systems onto a thermally stable support is a reliable approach for obtaining catalysts of good dispersion and high stability. Herein, NiO was dispersed over MO_x-modified-γ-Al₂O₃ (M = Ti, Mo, Si, or W; x = 2 or 3) through incipient wetness impregnation followed by calcination. The obtained catalyst systems were characterized by infrared, ultraviolet–visible, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, and H₂ temperature-programmed reduction. The mentioned synthetic procedure afforded the proper nucleation of different NiO-containing mixed oxides and/or interacting-NiO species. With different modifiers, the interaction of NiO with the γ-Al₂O₃ support was found to change, the Ni²⁺ environment was reformed exclusively, and the tendency of NiO species to undergo reduction was modified greatly. Catalyst systems 5Ni3MAl (M = Si, W) comprised a variety of species, whereby NiO interacted with the modifier and the support (e.g., NiSiO₃, NiAl₂O₄, and NiWO₃). These two catalyst systems displayed equal efficiency, >70% H₂ yield at 800 °C, and were thermally stable for up to 420 min on stream. 5Ni3SiAl catalyst regained nearly all its activity during regeneration for up to two cycles.

The CO₂ reforming of methane to syngas was examined over five different supported catalysts. In this study, 5% Ni was used as the active metal part of the catalyst. To better comprehend the impact of the supports on the catalytic properties, 5% Ni-based catalysts were characterized using nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms, XRD, H₂-TPR, CO₂-TPD, TGA, TPO, FTIR, and Raman. The results showed that the catalyst support with the highest surface area provided the best catalytic activity. The acquired CH₄ and CO₂ conversions at 700 °C were 58.2% and 67.6%, respectively, with a hydrogen/carbon ratio of 0.85. The TGA investigation of the high-surface-area sample produced a minimum carbon deposition of 11.2 wt.%, and in the CO₂-TPD investigation, the high-surface-area sample exhibited the absence of a peak in the strong-basic-sites zone. The formation of NiAl₂O₄ spinel, moderate basicity, and the high surface area explained the outperformance of the high-surface-area catalyst sample.