Preparation of Ni/SiO2, Ni/SiO2-CaO and Ni/SiO2- MgOcatalysts for methane steam reforming

Abstract

The preparation of mesoporous silica-supported nickel, by adding nickel nitrate and citric acid into a colloidal dispersion of sphere-shaped silica nanoparticles, was described in this work. The promotion with calcium and magnesium caused a decrease in specific surface area but led to an improvement of both activity in methane steam reforming and selectivity to hydrogen, making the catalysts suitable for hydrogen production. The magnesium-doped catalyst is the most promising one.