Oxy-dry reforming of propane over Ce-promoted Co–Ni/Al2O3 catalyst

This paper reports the production of syngas from two types of O₂-assisted dry reforming of propane, namely oxidative (O₂-dosed) dry reforming (ODR) and dry (CO₂-dosed) partial oxidation (DPOX). Reaction runs were conducted over alumina-supported bimetallic Co–Ni promoted with CeO₂ at 120?kPa and 793–893?K. Ceria promotion improved the carbon deposition resilience of the Co–Ni catalyst. Physicochemical attributes were obtained from liquid N₂ adsorption, H₂ chemisorption and temperature-programmed desorption runs for NH₃, CO₂, CH₄ and C₃H₈. Rate behavior under ODR, DPOX and pure dry reforming could be described consistently with empirical models that are structurally similar to Langmuir–Hinshelwood type relations. Inferences from these models allowed the postulation of the same overall reaction network for the three types of reactions albeit with variation in rate-controlling steps depending on the different product species. On the whole, DPOX seemed to be a superior option for the manufacturing of syngas for downstream olefin FT production due to reduced variability in the H₂:CO ratio and the closeness to unity (0.72–0.95) of the exiting syngas over the range of O₂ partial pressure used.