CO2 Reforming of Coke Oven Gas Over a Ni/γAl2O3 Catalyst to Produce Syngas for Methanol Synthesis

The CO2 reforming of coke oven gases (COG) was carried out over a Ni/γAl2O3 catalyst in order to obtain a suitable syngas for methanol synthesis. The influence of different operating conditions, such as temperature and volumetric hourly space velocity (VHSV), was studied. It was found that the H2 present in the feed gas promotes the Reverse Water Gas Shift reaction (RWGS), which produces water. Nevertheless, the Ni/γAl2O3 catalyst showed a high selectivity to the CO2 reforming reaction and it was possible to avoid the RWGS under certain operating conditions. Moreover, a part of the reaction could take place via a different path (RWGS followed by the steam reforming of methane instead of the direct dry reforming of methane). The deactivation of the Ni/γAl2O3 catalyst was also studied. Both the methane and the carbon dioxide conversions remained steady for 50 hours without showing any sign of deactivation. However, the sinterization of the nickel particles and the presence of carbon deposits seemed to indicate that the catalyst would eventually loose catalytic activity.