Deciphering the imperative role of ruthenium in enhancing the performance of Ni/Nd2O3.Gd2O3 in glycerol dry reforming

Glycerol dry reforming (GDR) turns glycerol and CO2 into valuable syngas. The present work aims to decipher the imperative role of Ru metal in enhancing the performance of Ni/Nd2O3.Gd2O3 in GDR. The unpromoted 15%Ni/Nd2O3.Gd2O3 and promoted 3%Ru-Ni/Nd2O3.Gd2O3 catalysts are synthesized via the ultrasonic-assisted impregnation method while XRD, FESEM-EDX, H2-TPR and CO2-TPD analyses are used to characterize the catalysts. In this study, the influence of reaction variables such as temperature and the CO2 to glycerol ratio (CGR) was investigated. In accordance with XRD and FESEM-EDX analyses, the promoted catalyst exhibited a more refined morphology and more uniform Ni dispersion than the unpromoted catalyst. From the reaction study, the promoted 3%Ru-15%Ni/Nd2O3.Gd2O3 gives higher glycerol conversion (91%), H2 yield (65%) and CO yield (80%) at a reaction temperature of 800 °C and CGR of 1. This is due to the higher number of available active sites as well as the excellent diffusion of Ni metal across the surface of the catalyst. However, as Ni metal is susceptible to carbon formation and is easily sintered, the production of carbon is unavoidable for the catalysts. The XRD and TPO analyses shown that the addition of Ru reduces the amount of carbon that accumulates on the site of the catalyst, which in turn reduces the rate of deactivation

Syngas production from glycerol dry reforming using Nd2RuO5 perovskite catalysts

Currently, fossil fuels as the global energy sources have become a liability due to the emission of greenhouse gases that causes global temperature elevated and climate changes to happen more frequently. As a result, glycerol dry reforming (GDR) has been a research priority, owing to its reforming capabilities in turning greenhouse gases (CO2) and biodiesel byproducts (glycerol) into syngas. The choice of catalysts is critical for increasing the efficiency of the syngas production process. Hence, this paper studies the application of Nd2RuO5 perovskite catalysts on the dry reforming of glycerol. Before characterization, the catalysts were prepared by using the Pechini Sol-Gel method. GDR reactions were conducted using a fixed-bed reactor at operating conditions; 873 – 1173 K and CO2 to Glycerol ratio (CGR) at 1:1. Based on XRD finding, the dominant phase belongs to Nd2RuO5, a pseudo double perovskite. The reduction profile from TPR showed a lowered reduction temperature which belongs to Ru that reduced into Ru0. The images of perovskite showed a well dispersed and smooth surface, and no agglomeration occurred on the pore sites. From the catalytic evaluation on the effect of temperature, the best temperature was observed at 1073 K, giving the highest glycerol conversion at 69%, whereas for H2, CO yields 20.8% and 13.8%, respectively. Intense carbon formation has been detected at post XRD analysis which later confirmed to be a filamentous type, that oxidized at low oxidation temperature from 400 – 500 K