Industrial Implementation of Secondary Steam Reforming
Currently, research work mainly takes place in externally heated fixed-bed reactors. Due to the exothermic nature of the reaction, "hot spots" are easily generated, leading to catalyst deactivation. Choudhary et al. investigated the reaction results of methane partial oxidation to synthesis gas using Ni and/or Co catalysts supported on different metal oxides (ZrO2, ThO2, UO2, TiO2, SiO2) under high space velocities (GHSV = 5.2 × 105 h-1). Ni/ZrO2, Ni/ThO2, and Ni/UO2 exhibited good catalytic activity for methane partial oxidation, with the activity order as follows: Ni/ThO2 > Ni/UO2 > Ni/ZrO2. Yu et al. examined the methane partial oxidation activity and selectivity of four catalysts with a Ni loading of 8 wt.%: Ni/γ-Al2O3, Ni/δ-Al2O3, Ni/θ-Al2O3, and Ni/α-Al2O3. The results showed that at 1043 K, the methane conversion rate and selectivity for CO and H2 were ranked as follows: Ni/γ-Al2O3 < Ni/δ-Al2O3 < Ni/θ-Al2O3 ≈ Ni/α-Al2O3.