Preparation and improvement of the mesoporous nanostructured nickel catalysts supported on magnesium aluminate for syngas production by glycerol dry reforming.

Dry reforming of glycerol is an interesting method for syngas production due to its H 2 /CO ≈ 1 that is suitable for FT synthesis. In this study, the performance of the Ni/MgO.Al 2 O 3 catalysts with different nickel contents was investigated in glycerol dry reforming. The MgO.Al 2 O 3 carrier was prepared by a simple sol-gel method and the nickel-based catalysts were synthesized by the wet impregnation method. The prepared catalysts possessed high BET surface area and pore volume. The TPR analysis showed a strong interaction between Ni and the catalyst support. The results demonstrated that the glycerol conversion decreased by increasing in CO 2 /glycerol (GRR) molar ratio. All the prepared samples showed high stability in glycerol dry reforming during 25 h of reaction, indicating the high resistance of the catalysts against carbon formation. Also, 10 wt%Ni/MgO.Al 2 O 3 catalysts possessed the highest catalytic performance (52% of glycerol conversion at 750 °C) due to the high dispersion of nickel on the prepared carrier. • Dry reforming of glycerol was investigated over Ni/MgO.Al 2 O 3 catalysts. • The catalyst support was prepared by a simple sol-gel method. • The catalyst support possessed a high BET surface area. • The prepared catalysts exhibited high stability in glycerol dry reforming reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]