Abstract: “Methane and carbon dioxide are the major components of biogas produced by anaerobic digestion of biomass and conversion of biogas to syngas is of great interesting for making use of the sustainable biomass resource. The present paper deals with catalyst development and testing for the dry reforming of methane (DRM). Three different SBA-15 supported nickel catalysts were prepared, with nickel loadings from 5 to 20 wt. %, using a mixture of nickel precursors (acetate and nitrate). A cobalt modified Ni catalyst was also prepared using sequential impregnation. The catalysts were characterized by SEM/EDS, XRD, TEM and BET measurement. The mesoporous structure of the SBA-15 support was maintained and good dispersion and reasonably high loadings of nickel nano-particles on the support were obtained for all prepared catalysts. These samples were tested against the DRM, at different temperatures and CH4:CO2 molar ratios, in order to assess their activity and selectivity. High methane conversion”

Keywords: Ni-on-silica catalysts, Ni-precursor, DRM catalytic activity