Steam Reforming of Methane using Ni-based Monolith Catalyst in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System

摘要

Natural gas is a suitable fuel supply for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system due to its increasingly improved infrastructure and relatively low cost. Natural gas should be reformed to syngas before it is introduced to SOFC system. Reforming catalyst is one of the key techniques in steaming reforming of natural gas. Compared with pellet catalyst, monolith catalyst can reduce the pressure drop and temperature gradient in the reformer. This work focuses on monolith catalyst and its usage in the reformer. In this work, Ni-based monolith catalyst (modified by Mg) was prepared and tested in steam reforming of methane. When the water to methane ratio is 3, the conversion of methane reaches 99% at 800°C with the gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) is 3000 h~(-1) . Percentage of hydrogen in the reforming product gases is about 75% and the performance of this catalyst is stable. The interaction between Ni and support was analyzed using temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) technique and the results showed that NiO- MgO solid solution can strengthen the interaction between Ni and support so that the anti- carbon disposition ability and stability of the catalyst was improved. Methane steam reformer testing equipment with the processing capability of 7 SLM CH4 was established and it can meet the demand of 1～2 kW SOFC system. The hydrogen production of this reformer reaches 22.7 SLM and the conversion of CH4 is 97.8%.