Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 162 (2015) 551–563 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Catalysis B: Environmental j ourna l h om epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apcatb Syngas production by methane oxy-steam reforming on Me/CeO 2 (Me = Rh, Pt, Ni) catalyst lined on cordierite monoliths Antonio Vita a,∗ , Giuseppe Cristiano b , Cristina Italiano a , Lidia Pino a , Stefania Specchia b a CNR-ITAE “Nicola Giordano”, Via Salita S. Lucia sopra Contesse 5, 98126 Messina, Italy b Politecnico di Torino, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 12 April 2014 Received in revised form 7 July 2014 Accepted 11 July 2014 Available online 19 July 2014 Keywords: Syngas production CH4 oxy-steam reforming Rh Pt Ni catalysts Ceria carrier Cordierite monoliths a b s t r a c t The deposition of catalytic layers as Rh, Pt, Ni (noble metals load equal to 1.5 wt.%, Ni load equal to 7.5 wt.%) on CeO 2 , over cordierite monoliths (400 cpsi, diameter 1 cm, length 1.5 cm), prepared through a combination of the solution combustion synthesis followed by the Wet Impregnation technique, was investigated. The performances of the structured catalysts were evaluated towards the methane Oxy- Steam Reforming (OSR) reaction. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts at powder level were investigated by X-ray Diffraction, CO chemisorption and nitrogen adsorption (BET), whereas the char- acteristics of the structured catalysts in terms of thickness and coating integrity were investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), mechanical strength and pressure drop tests. Moreover, the mor- phology of catalytic layers was investigated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) on the powder obtained by mechanically scraping the monoliths internal walls. The prepared structured catalysts were tested and compared towards the CH 4 OSR reaction varying the temperature (500–800 ◦ C), the weight space velocity (WSV = 33,000–400,000 Nml g cat -1 h -1 ), at fixed molecular oxygen-to-carbon (O/C = 0.55) and steam-to-carbon (S/C = 1.2) molar ratios. The catalytic monoliths presented a uniform thin coat- ing with thickness between 20 and 25 m, high mechanical strength and low pressure drop. Regarding the catalytic activity, at low WSV all of the structured catalysts showed similar performances. Instead, increasing the WSV, the catalytic monolith loaded with 1.5 wt.% Rh/CeO 2 performed slightly better than the other samples, maintaining almost constant the methane conversion and the CO selectivity even at 400,000 Nml g cat -1 h -1 . © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hydrogen is, currently, one of the important gaseous raw mate- rials for petroleum and petrochemical industries. In the near future hydrogen is expected to become an important energy carrier [1] to be used for Fuel Cells (FC) in electrical vehicles (Proton Exchange Membrane FC, PEMFC [2]) and electrical power plants (Solid Oxide FC, SOFC [3]) with zero, or near-to-zero emissions of greenhouse gases or hazardous species. This scenery is connected with a new prospective in terms of energy production, finalized to minimize or solve problems due to the global warming, the lack of fossil resources and the general increase of energy demand especially by the new emergent economies [4]. Therefore, the hydrogen demand is expected to grow over the next ten years, for industrial use, and for running FC [5]. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 090624297; fax: +39 090624247. E-mail addresses: antonio.vita@itae.cnr.it, vitaantonio72@gmail.com (A. Vita). The feasibility of a truly hydrogen economy is still an open debate: the production, transport and use of hydrogen as a fuel or raw material for other chemicals require a series of new processes, materials, products and infrastructure which necessitate resources not yet available. The introduction and commercialization of hydro- gen as future energy carrier requires many efforts, also considering safety and regulations [6–8]. Thus, the interest in the use of syngas (H 2 and CO mixture) as raw material to produce synthetic green petroleum oils for use as fuels and lubricants is increasing more and more [9–12]. Simultaneously, the progress in PEMFC and SOFC systems [13,14] and in the synthetic fuel production has been improved by mak- ing hydrogen/syngas production from the fuel processing of fossil fuels, as well as biomass, more important [15–23]. Therefore, the development of efficient and compact fuel processors, capable to produce hydrogen or syngas from the reforming of different hydro- carbons, represents a significant challenge to the introduction of FCs on the market and to the growing of the hydrogen economy [1,12,24–27]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2014.07.028 0926-3373/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.