Catalytic and kinetic analysis of the methane tri-reforming over a NieMg/b-SiC catalyst Jesu ´s Manuel Garcı´a-Vargas * , Jose Luis Valverde, Javier Dı´ez, Fernando Dorado, Paula S  anchez Departamento de Ingenierı´a Quı´mica, Facultad de Ciencias Quı´micas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avenida Camilo Jos e Cela 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain article info Article history: Received 11 December 2014 Received in revised form 21 April 2015 Accepted 4 May 2015 Available online 29 May 2015 Keywords: Tri-reforming Nickel Magnesium Kinetics abstract In this work, the influence of the temperature and feed composition on the catalytic behaviour of a NieMg/b-SiC catalyst in the methane tri-reforming was analysed and modelized. This catalyst was characterized by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS), Temperature Programmed Reduction (TPR), N 2 adsorption, Temperature Pro- grammed Desortion of CO 2 (TPD) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). 36 catalytic experiments at different temperatures and feed compositions were performed, modifying the quantity of CH 4 , CO 2 ,H 2 O and O 2 present in the feed. The predominance of each one of the reactions that took place during the tri-reforming process was evaluated as a function of the tem- perature, finding at low temperatures a higher contribution of both the steam reforming and the water gas shift reactions. On the contrary, at higher temperatures, a higher contribution of the dry reforming was detected. Finally, a kinetic model was raised and experimental data were fitted to it. Steam reforming, dry reforming and water gas shift reactions were considered as the kinetically relevant equations. A good agreement be- tween experimental and predicted data was observed. Copyright © 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Interest in the conversion of CO 2 into valuable chemical compounds has been growing in the last years due to: a) the harmful effect that the emissions of this gas have on the environment, affecting specially to the climate, the increase in the carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration being generally accepted as the most important cause of the global warming effect [1e4]; and b) the decrease in the pe- troleum reserves and the consequent increase in the price of oil, what makes interesting the possibility of obtaining carbon derived compounds from a widely abundant an relatively cheap source. In this way, dry reforming (Eq. (1)) could be a feasible route in order to convert CO 2 into valuable chemical compounds via synthesis gas. CO 2 þ CH 4 / 2CO þ 2H 2 (DH ◦ ¼ 247.3 kJ mol 1 ) (1) This reaction has attracted some interest in the last years and several groups have analysed its characteristics [5e10]. However, this process has two main drawbacks that are * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 926295300; fax: þ34 926295256. E-mail address: JesusManuel.Garcia@uclm.es (J.M.Garcı´a-Vargas). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 40 (2015) 8677 e8687 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.05.032 0360-3199/Copyright © 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.