Enhanced catalytic activity and stability of nanoshaped Ni/CeO2 for CO2 methanation in micro-monoliths

Coupling inherently fluctuating renewable feedstocks to highly exothermic catalytic processes, such as CO2 methanation, is a major challenge large thermal swings occurring during ON- and OFF- cycles can irreversible deactivate the catalyst via metal sintering pore collapsing. Here, we report stable active Ni supported on CeO2 nanorods that outperform commercial (octahedral) counterpart methanation at variable reaction conditions in both powdered μ-monolith configurations. The long-term stability tests were carried out kinetic regime, temperature of maximal rate (300 °C) using gas hourly space velocities varied between 6 30 L h−1·gcat−1. Detailed characterization by μ-XRF revealed similar loadings achieved octahedral (c.a. 2.7 3.3 wt. %, respectively). Notably, XRD, SEM, HR-TEM-EDX analysis indicated smaller Ni-Clusters with narrow particle size distribution obtained (∼ 7 ± 4 nm) when compared 16 13 nm). fast deactivation observed loaded was prevented structuring reactor bed μ-monoliths supporting nanorods. FeCrAlloy® sheets used manufacture multichannel 2 cm length 1.58 diameter, cell density 2004 cpsi. testing structured Ni/CeO2 highest rates, c.a. 5.5 6.2 mmol min−1·gNi−1 h−1·gcat−1 300 °C, respectively, negligible even after 90 h operation.