Journal of Natural Gas Chemistry 18(2009) 392–398 Effect of Cu promoter on Ni-based SBA-15 catalysts for partial oxidation of methane to syngas Fabien Habimana 1 , Xiujin Li 2 , Shengfu Ji 1∗ , Bao Lang 1 , Daoan Sun 1 , Chengyue Li 1 1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; 2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China [ Received March 17, 2009; Revised June 5, 2009; Available online October 29, 2009 ] Abstract A series of Ni/SBA-15 catalysts with 5wt% to 15wt% Ni content as well as a series of 12.5%Ni/Cu/SBA-15 catalysts with 1% to 10% copper content were prepared by the impregnation method. The catalytic performance for partial oxidation of methane was investigated in a continuous flow microreactor under atmospheric pressure. The textural and chemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, BET and H 2 -TPR techniques. The results indicated that the catalysts modified with Cu promoter showed better performance than those without modification. For the 12.5%Ni/2.5%/Cu/SBA-15 catalyst, at 850 ◦ C the conversion of CH 4 reached 97.9% and the selectivity of CO and H 2 reached 98.0% and 96.0%, respectively. In XRD patterns of the Ni/Cu/SBA-15 catalyst with 7.5 to 10% Cu contents there were CuO characteristic peaks beside NiO characteristic peaks. The mesoporous structure of SBA-15 was retained in all of the catalysts. TPR analysis of the catalysts revealed that a strong interaction between Ni, Cu promoter and SBA-15 support may be existed. This interaction enhanced significantly the redox properties of the catalysts resulting in the higher catalytic activity. Key words Cu promoter; Ni-based catalyst; SBA-15; methane; partial oxidation of methane 1. Introduction Since methane was found to be a predominant compo- nent of natural gas, recent studies on the utilization of natu- ral gas have been concentrated almost exclusively on catalytic conversion of methane to syngas. As natural gas is found in many locations around the world, the catalytic conversion of methane would produce syngas which is a raw material for many industrial products such as fertilizers, explosives, chlo- roform and carbon tetrachloride. Syngas is also a principal source of methanol [1-5]. The process of POM (partial oxi- dation of methane) exhibits mild exothermicity. Compared to steam reforming, the catalytic partial oxidation is estimated to offer energy cost reduction of about 30% since the reaction is exothermic. An added advantage is that the syngas produced has the H 2 /CO molar ratio of about 2 and this makes the POM process ideal for the production of synthesis gas for use in methanol or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis [6-12]. Choudhary and coworkers studied a Ni supported on alumina partial oxi- dation system in the range of 712 to 1173 K; they found that CO selectivity reached 95% [13]. The high cost and limited availability of noble metals im- ply that Ni catalysts are preferred from an industrial stand point. However, the deactivation of Ni catalysts due to sin- tering of Ni metal particles and deposition of carbon is al- ways a serious problem during the POM reaction. For this, it is more practical to develop Ni-based catalysts that not only possess high stability but also are able to resist carbon depo- sition during the reaction. In this regard, a lot of work has been conducted in order to improve the catalytic activity of Ni-based catalysts by adding a promoter to the active compo- nent of the catalysts [14-17]. Since Cu was found to be a strong inhibitor of coke formation, Ni-Cu bimetallic catalysts have been designed and investigated in detail for steam re- forming processes. It was found that Ni-Cu catalysts strongly resisted carbon deposition [18-21]. Huang et al. [22] have successfully improved the catalytic activity of samaria-doped ceria (SDC) supported Ni catalysts by the addition of Cu pro- moter for steam reforming of methane. It was observed that Ni-Cu interaction enhanced the activity of steam reforming ∗ Corresponding author. Tel: +86-10-64419619; Fax: +86-10-64419619; E-mail: jisf@mail.buct.edu.cn This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Project No. 2005CB221405), the National “863” Project of China (No. 2006AA10Z425) Copyright©2009, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1003-9953(08)60130-9