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The ever-growing carbon-based economy has led to alarming increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). These emissions accelerate global warming and environmental challenges. Methane Dry Reforming (DRM) offers a promising technology to address this issue by converting CH4 and CO2 into a valuable syngas (CO + H2) mixture, which is a valuable fuel and a building block for the many important chemical reactions i.e. Fischer-Tropsch process. However, finding affordable and environmentally friendly catalysts for large-scale applications remains a critical hurdle. This study delves into the development of stable nickel-zirconia catalysts prepared via the impregnation method. The weight percentage of nickel and zirconia was varied to optimize the catalyst's activity by controlling the deactivation phenomenon that is a major challenge at higher temperatures during DRM. Various characterization techniques (XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, TGA, TEM, and BET) were employed to evaluate the synthesized catalysts physio-chemical properties. Additionally, catalytic performance was assessed at temperatures ranging from 550 to 750 °C and a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 72,000 mL/h/gcat. Among the tested catalysts, 15% Ni/ZrO2 displayed remarkable conversion values for both CH4 (62.9%) and CO2 (64.9%). Importantly, it exhibited significantly lower weight loss (ca. 15.42%) compared to other variants, indicating better resilience against coke deposition. This enhanced stability can be attributed to the synergistic interplay between the nickel and zirconia support, effectively suppressing carbon formation. These findings demonstrate the potential of 15% Ni/ZrO2 as a promising catalyst for experimental DRM application. With the obvious high activity, and stability, the 15% Ni/ZrO2 candidate serves as an eco-friendly candidate for greenhouse gas conversion into green fuel energy, contributing to a sustainable economy.
Azeem et al. (Sun,) studied this question.