H2 production from reforming biogas (CH4+CO2) in the Ni-doped Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 perovskite catalyst

Abstract

This study deals with the development of novel Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 &#8211

based catalyst for H2 production from reforming biogas (consisted of CH4 and CO2). The small amount of Ni was doped on the Ti lattice site of Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 to greatly improve catalytic activity. The Ni-doped Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 catalyst was prepared at reduced temperature via a Pechini method. First, we see the significant enhanced H2 production of Nidoped Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 catalyst (CH4 conversion=62~76% at 750o C) compared to the pure Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 catalyst (CH4 conversion=15%). Second, the analysis of surface property at reaction conditions displays that the catalytic activity of Ni-doped Sr0.92Y0.08TiO3 toward the reforming of biogas strongly depends on the activation condition (or pretreatment condition) of catalysts. In particular, the activation of catalyst at 100 mol% N2 (inert condition) shows the higher reactivity (CH4 conversion of 76%) for reforming biogas than the 15 mol%H2 in N2 (reducing condition) (a CH4 conversion of 62%). We also conducted the density functional theory calculation in order to better understand the origin of enhanced catalysis in H2 production from reforming biogas, which suggests that the reduction of oxygen vacancy formation energy is key to the improvement of catalytic activity.