Biogas steam and oxy-steam reforming reactions over Me/CeO 2 –based (Me = Rh, Pt, Ni) structured cordierite monoliths Antonio Vita 1 , Giuseppe Cristiano 2 , Cristina Italiano 1 , Lidia Pino 1 , Stefania Specchia 2 1 CNR-ITAE “Nicola Giordano”, Via Salita S. Lucia sopra Contesse 5, 98126 Messina – Italy 2 Dept. of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino (Italy) Increasing of energy requirements, dependence on crude oil, limited fossil resources, and environmental problems are huge challenges for our societies. Within such a context, fuels derived from renewable resources (biomass and waste) could give an important contribute to meet current and future energy requirements. Biogas is an attractive renewable energy source, which does not contribute to carbon dioxide emissions [1]. In recent years, some specific legislative tools of European Union (EU) have been aiming to increase the integration of renewable resources into the EU energy system [2]. Thus, biogas can be considered as the most widespread renewable fuel obtained from biomass, produced from a variety of organic raw materials ranging from zoo-technical to agro-industrial sectors. Biogas composition is related to the starting substrate [3]. Basically it is constituted by 50-75% CH 4 , 25-45% CO 2 , 2-7% H 2 O (at 20-40 °C), 2% N 2 , less than 1% H 2 /H 2 S and traces of O 2 , NH 3 , halides and siloxanes [4]. Internal combustion engines and gas turbines represent the most employed technologies for energy generation from biogas, but at the same time show low electrical conversion (18-25%, especially in the range of 5–100 kW el ), high levels of noise and harmful environmental emissions. However, an alternative and sustainable use of biogas is feasible and it is based on the production of pure methane by purification processes [5] or syngas by reforming processes [6]. Biogas reforming is essentially CO 2 reforming of CH 4 , even known as dry reforming of CH 4 : DR: CH 4 + CO 2 → 2CO + 2H 2 ∆H° 298 = 247.3 kJ mol –1 One of the major drawbacks of DR is the requirement of high temperatures to reach high conversion levels. Moreover, there is a significant potential for carbon deposition over the surface of the catalyst. Severe operating conditions, in fact, result in deactivation by coke deposition and/or sintering of the metallic phase and support. Appropriate catalysts for biogas reforming reactions must able to efficiently convert CH 4 and CO 2 in presence of H 2 O for SR and H 2 O and O 2 for OSR. Ni or precious metals, such as Ru, Rh, Pd, and Pt, are reported to be active as the catalyst for the mentioned reaction; however, the reactions are frequently accompanied by coke formation, especially on Ni catalysts, leading to catalyst deactivation or plugging of the reactor. Noble metal shows high selectivity for coke-free operation, which can be ascribed to