Kinetic investigation of CO2 reforming of CH4 over La-Ni based perovskite

The kinetic behavior of the LaNiO3 catalyst in the reforming reaction of methane with carbon dioxide was investigated as a function of temperature and partial pressures of CH4 and CO2. There are two kinds of active sites on the catalyst surface. In the first Ni reacts with CH4 and in the second kind La2O3 reacts with CO2. XRD pattern of the spent catalyst has shown that the phase La2O2CO3 has formed which confirmed displayed mechanism. A reaction rate based on the mechanistic results was developed which predicts the experimental reaction rate with a good accuracy. Moreover, the kinetic behavior of LaNiO3 was compared with the Ni/La2O3, Rh/La2O3 catalysts in the reforming reaction of methane with carbon dioxide at different temperatures and partial pressures of CH4 and CO2. These three catalysts have shown the same mechanism and the coefficients of rate equation for each one has been estimated by genetic algorithm. The results showed that Rh/La2O3 and LaNiO3 posses more activity than Ni/La2O3 at higher range of reaction temperature. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.