Influence of the Calcination Technique of Silica on the Properties and Performance of Ni/SiO2 Catalysts for Synthesis of Hydrogen via Methane Cracking Reaction

Deactivation of catalysts due to rapid blocking of active surfaces and pores is a major problem for methane cracking. The removal of the template using different calcination methods contributes to the different characteristics of catalyst support. Therefore, silica supports were prepared with the sol-gel method, where sodium silicate and chitosan are a silica source and a template, respectively. Calcination using a microwave muffle furnace (MWF) was preferred over the conventional electric muffle furnace at the heating rates of 2 and 17 °C/min (CEF2 and CEF17, respectively) in order to remove the chitosan template. A nickel nitrate precursor was loaded onto the obtained silica supports by the incipient wetness impregnation method. The properties of the silica support and the Ni/SiO 2 catalysts were characterized by means of N 2 -sorption, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray, field emission transmission electron microscopy, and H 2 temperature-programmed reduction. The catalytic activity was evaluated using a fixed-bed reactor at 550 °C with a CH 4 /N 2 ratio of 1:4 in the feed. The amount and the allotropes of carbon deposited on the spent catalysts were investigated using thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis. The results showed that the SiO 2 -MWF support had a higher surface area and a larger pore volume of a mesoporous structure with larger interparticle channels than that of the SiO 2 -CEF supports. This leads to the higher dispersion of Ni metal particles over and inside the interparticle channels of the SiO 2 -MWF support. This provided a higher metal-support interaction, resulting in lower rates of methane conversion and carbon deposition on the catalyst surface than those of Ni/SiO 2 -CEF catalysts. However, it displayed a lower bed pressure. It was found that the carbon fibers deposited on all the catalysts were multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Additionally, the base-growth mechanism of MWCNTs was only exhibited by the Ni/SiO 2 -MWF catalyst.