Ethane dry reforming for CO2 utilization and H2 generation

Abstract

Abstract The dry reforming of ethane offers a promising pathway for the co-utilization of CO 2 , which are two abundant industrial byproducts to produce blue H 2 and CO, enabling sustainable routes toward carbon circularity. This study investigates the performance of CeO 2 supported metal catalysts and the effect of catalyst loading in the dry reforming process across a range of temperatures. Catalyst characterization included H 2 -TPR, NH 3 -TPD, CO 2 -TPD, H 2 -TPD, XRD and SEM/EDS mapping to correlate surface acidity, basicity, reducibility, and metal dispersion with catalytic performance. Among all formulations, 2% Rh/CeO 2 showed the highest ethane conversion of ~ 98.5%-91.2% with early reduction behavior, but suffered from minor byproduct of ~ 15 − 12% methane generated from ethane dissociation. Ni/CeO 2 catalysts, especially at 15% loading, demonstrated excellent balance between performance up to 80 − 52% conversion, CO 2 utilization ~ 70 − 48%, with ~ 99% selectivity toward H 2 and CO, and less than 1% formation of methane and ethylene byproducts. Increased Ni loading improved performance due to better reducibility and moderate surface acidity. These findings highlight CeO 2 role in enhancing metal dispersion, particularly Ni/CeO 2 catalyst offers a cost-effective alternative to noble metal of Rh/CeO 2 for dry reforming of ethane, enabling efficient CO 2 valorization for decarbonized energy systems.