Carbon Dioxide Reforming of Methane Over Co-precipitated Ni-Ce-ZrO2 Catalysts

An active and relatively stable Ni-Ce-ZrO₂ catalyst has been designed and prepared conveniently by a novel one-step co-precipitation/digestion method. This catalyst exhibited higher stability compared with a catalyst having the same composition but prepared using the conventional impregnation method. It was found that 15% Ni (w/w) co-precipitated with Ce-ZrO₂ making the cubic phase of Ce_0.8Zr_0.2O₂ gave synthesis gas with CH₄ conversion more than 97% at 800 °C and that the activity was maintained for 100 h during the reaction. The higher activity, conversion and stability of these catalysts are mainly related to the nano-crystalline nature of cubic Ce_1-xZr_xO₂ producing strong interaction with finely dispersed nano-sized NiO_x crystallites.