Enhanced Biomass-Derived Glycerol Conversion to Syngas in the CO₂ Reforming Process: Influence of the Nickel Loading Method on Physicochemical Properties and Catalytic Performance

In the current study, renewable syngas production from glycerol has been investigated through a catalytic dry reforming process using the Ni/CaO·Al2O3 catalyst. Calcium aluminate support has been synthesized via a one-step sol–gel technique. The active metal of Ni attached to the CaO·Al2O3 is supported by wet impregnation, simultaneous sol–gel, and EDTA-assisted impregnation. Investigation of different methods’ impact on Ni species attachment onto carrier revealed that the EDTA-assisted impregnation method improves the reducibility catalytic activity (57% at 750 °C) of the catalyst in the dry reforming of glycerol (dry-RG) process. It also affects carbon formation on the catalyst surface. Besides, the impact of Ni content (5–20 wt %) in the catalyst has been evaluated. Increasing the nickel loading amount increased the active phase’s reducibility and reduced the pore size. Ni loading experiments’ results indicate that glycerol conversion improves with increasing Ni loading up to 10 wt %, impregnated by chelated Ni species [Ni (EDTA)2–] onto calcium aluminate support. Based on the characterization results, the impact of the nickel loading method and amount on the dry-RG reaction was discussed