Department of Chemical Engineering (IIT Delhi)

B.Tech. Major Project Part-1 / Part-II (CLD 411/412/413/414/415)

Fortnight Report No.: FR1/FR2/FR3/FR4/FR5/FR6 (tick the right one) Date: 23/08/2019

Student Name: Amit Entry No.: 2016CH10077 Group No.: 4

Choudhary

Project Title: Role of Support in Tri-Reforming of Methane

Objectives:
Comparative Analysis of the effect of support on TRM and Optimizing the CO/H2
ratio to 1:2.
Summary of work done:
During the past week, focus was on the recipe of catalyst synthesis and the novel catalysts
discussed in recent literature.
Discussion with Prof. K.K. Pant Sir highlighted that in the industries sintering of the catalyst at
high temperatures is observed which results in the h < 0.01, resulting in a diffusion limited
reaction. So, support design becomes important parameter. Literature review gives the loading of
the active material in the range of 5-15%. So, planning to wet impregnate the catalyst with active
material using suitable nitrate salts. In addition to that, also thinking to load about 0.1% of Rh
along with Ni (at 8,12,15%).
Synthesis of support – MgAl2O4 with and without Zirconia (ZrO2) at different composition. For
this, MgCO3 can be calcined to yield MgO and it can be dry mixed with the Alumina. For other
one, one can calcine the Zirconia-nitrate hexahydrate first and use MgO and Alumina. After this
the mixture can be calcined at different rates (800oC for 10hr OR 1000oC for 8hr). The catalyst
structure can then be studied using the XRD data. The best support can then be loaded with the
active metal. To prevent the formation of Hydrotalcites, we would keep the concentration of MgO
less than that of the Alumina.
For the case of Thermodynamic analysis, taking into account the Boudouard reaction for the
deposition of the carbon (becomes important at higher temperature), along with the tri-reforming
reaction, the WGS reaction and the decomposition of methane and the hydrolysis and oxidation
of the C-deposited.
We also looked for the MgIn2O4 as a catalyst, the literature gives an inverse spinel structure
which is quite similar to the MgAl2O4. Therefore, the experimentation will begin from coming
Wednesday. This discussion is left with Pant Sir to proceed with MgAl2O4 or MgIn2O4 for the
case of novelty of support.

Future plan:
Simulate the tri-reforming reaction on MATLAB to understand its thermodynamic analysis.
Synthesize the catalyst with and without Zirconia in the support to understand the differences in
performance. Characterization of support via XRD. Then loaded catalyst characterization by XRD,
SEM_EDX, TEM, TGA, CO2-TPD and BET-Surface Area techniques.
Run the experiments with controlled flow of the gases (flue gas, Oxygen, Methane & Steam).
Analyze the results online using GC-FID and get the conversion.

Comments on Performance: Satisfactory Average Unsatisfactory

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