Role of vanadium in Ni:Al2O3 catalysts for carbon dioxide reforming of methane

The CO2 reforming of CH4 was performed over V-promoted Ni/Al2O3 catalysts similarly prepared by the polymeric precursor method. The H-2 chemisorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) analyses show that a low V wt.% addition suppresses the NiAl2O4 formation. Moreover, the CHN results point out to a low carbon deposition and the surface area (BET) abruptly increases upon the addition of 0.8 wt.% V. On the other hand, the sample with high V wt.% presented the highest carbon deposition, what was attributed to the CH4 decomposition increase promoted by the V. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.