Development and Testing of Ni-Cu Bimetallic Catalysts for Effective Syngas Production via Low-Temperature Methane Steam Reforming

In the present work, novel bi-metallic catalysts for syngas production at low temperature steam reforming are developed, characterised and tested. Steam methane reforming by using bi-metallic Ni-Cu catalysts found to balance the product of CO to CO2 ratios, while affected the water gas shift reaction by increasing the hydrogen selectivity up to 600°C. The addition of different amounts of Cu (3, 5, 7, 10 wt%) to the Ni catalyst for methane steam reforming showed different reactivity trends. One of the major outcomes of this work is the maximum load capacity of Cu (5wt.%Cu) to maintain the reactivity. For comparison purposes, mono-metallic catalysts of Cu and Ni were developed and tested along with the bi-metallic ones. The activity of the reaction decreased by doping more than 5wt.%Cu which affected the amount of hydrogen produced. This is related to the possible limited number of available sites required for hydrogen adsorption to maintain the reaction of methane steam reforming. Another important outcome of this work is the bi-metallic Ni-Cu catalysts did not decrease the amount of carbon formation.