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Abstract In CO 2 methanation, spinel phases are often considered as undesirable leading to deactivation. However, they can also be considered as well‐dispersed solid solutions suitable as catalyst precursors leading to the formation of highly active and finely dispersed active sites. Though, spinels such as NiAl 2 O 4 , which form when Ni/Al 2 O 3 supported catalysts are used, require high reduction temperatures to become active. To obtain a suitable catalyst precursor, the reducibility of such spinels must be improved so that it can be activated under conventional conditions. The undesirable spinel phase is modified by introducing manganese, known to distort the spinel structure, to form Ni 0.9 Mn x Al 2‐x O 4 (0≤x≤2) as a new catalyst precursor. These exhibit significantly improved reducibility at low temperatures. By adjusting the manganese content, a methane yield of 38.7 % was achieved at 350 °C under the conditions used, which is more than twice that of the supported Ni/Al 2 O 3 reference catalyst (SPP2080‐IMRC).
Weber et al. (Mon,) studied this question.