Lanthanum-Modified MCF-Derived Nickel Phyllosilicate Catalyst for Enhanced CO2 Methanation: A Comprehensive Study

Single-Atom Ru Alloyed with Ni Nanoparticles Boosts CO2 Methanation

Designing catalysts to proceed with catalytic reactions along the desired reaction pathways, e.g., CO2 methanation, has received much attention but remains a huge challenge. This work reports one Ru1Ni single-atom alloy (SAA) catalyst (Ru1Ni/SiO2) prepared via a galvanic replacement reaction between RuCl3 and Ni nanoparticles (NPs) derived from the reduction of Ni phyllosilicate (Ni-ph). Ru1Ni/SiO2 achieved much improved selectivity toward hydrogenation of CO2 to CH4 and catalytic activity (Turnover frequency (TOF) value: 40.00 × 10-3 s-1), much higher than those of Ni/SiO2 (TOF value: 4.40 × 10-3 s-1) and most reported Ni-based catalysts (TOF value: 1.03 × 10-3-11.00 × 10-3 s-1). Experimental studies verify that Ru single atoms are anchored onto the Ni NPs surface via the Ru1-Ni coordination accompanied by electron transfer from Ru1 to Ni. Both in situ experiments and theoretical calculations confirm that the interface sites of Ru1Ni-SAA are the intrinsic active sites, which promote the direct dissociation of CO2 and lower the energy barrier for the hydrogenation of CO* intermediate, thereby directing and enhancing the CO2 hydrogenation to CH4.

Synergistic Catalysis at the Ni/ZrO2-x Interface toward Low-Temperature CO2 Methanation

The CO₂ methanation reaction, which achieves the carbon cycle and gains value-added chemicals, has attracted much attention, but the design and exploitation of highly active catalysts remain a big challenge. Herein, zirconium dioxide-supported Ni catalysts toward low-temperature CO₂ methanation are obtained via structural topological transformation of NiZrAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors, which have the feature of an interfacial structure (Ni-O-Zr³⁺-Vö) between Ni nanoparticles and ZrO_2-x support (0 < x < 1). The optimized catalyst (Ni/ZrO_2-x-S2) exhibits exceptional CO₂ conversion (∼72%) at a temperature as low as 230 °C with a ∼100% selectivity to CH₄, without obvious catalyst deactivation within a 110 h reaction at a high gas hourly space velocity of 30,000 mL·g^-1·h^-1. Markedly, the space-time yield of CH₄ reaches up to ∼0.17 molCH4·g_cat^-1·h^-1, which is superior to previously reported Ni catalysts evaluated under similar reaction conditions. Both in situ/operando investigations (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure) and catalytic evaluations substantiate the interfacial synergistic catalysis at the Ni/ZrO_2-x interface: the Zr³⁺-Vö facilitates the activation adsorption of CO₂, while the H₂ molecule experiences dissociation at the metallic Ni sites. This work demonstrates that the metal-support interface effect plays a key role in improving the catalytic behavior toward CO₂ methanation, which can be extended to other high-performance heterogeneous catalysts toward structure-sensitive systems.

Influence of Highly Stable Ni2+ Species in Ni Phyllosilicate Catalysts on Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Enhancing the catalytic performance of non-noble Ni catalysts in the selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FA) in terms of furfural conversion, selectivity, and good recyclability is challenging. Here, spherical nickel phyllosilicate catalysts (Ni_PS) with fibrous-like structures are prepared via a modified sol-gel method with Ni loadings of 2-30 wt %. Upon exposure to air, all the reduced Ni_PS catalysts exhibit more than 80% Ni⁰/Ni_{phyllosilicate} species on the surface, whereas a large portion of Ni oxide species (>55%) is presented on the impregnated catalyst. The Ni²⁺ species in nickel phyllosilicate catalysts are active and highly stable during reduction, reaction, and regeneration, yielding stable catalytic performance for multiple recycle tests in furfural hydrogenation to FA. Furfural conversion over the Ni_PS catalysts increased monotonically with increasing Ni loading without an FA selectivity drop. The presence of both metallic Ni⁰ and Ni_{phyllosilicate} also produces a synergistic promotional effect for FA formation.

A Review on Green Hydrogen Valorization by Heterogeneous Catalytic Hydrogenation of Captured CO2 into Value-Added Products

The catalytic hydrogenation of captured CO2 by different industrial processes allows obtaining liquid biofuels and some chemical products that not only present the interest of being obtained from a very low-cost raw material (CO2) that indeed constitutes an environmental pollution problem but also constitute an energy vector, which can facilitate the storage and transport of very diverse renewable energies. Thus, the combined use of green H2 and captured CO2 to obtain chemical products and biofuels has become attractive for different processes such as power-to-liquids (P2L) and power-to-gas (P2G), which use any renewable power to convert carbon dioxide and water into value-added, synthetic renewable E-fuels and renewable platform molecules, also contributing in an important way to CO2 mitigation. In this regard, there has been an extraordinary increase in the study of supported metal catalysts capable of converting CO2 into synthetic natural gas, according to the Sabatier reaction, or in dimethyl ether, as in power-to-gas processes, as well as in liquid hydrocarbons by the Fischer-Tropsch process, and especially in producing methanol by P2L processes. As a result, the current review aims to provide an overall picture of the most recent research, focusing on the last five years, when research in this field has increased dramatically.

Robust nickel silicate catalysts with high Ni loading for CO2 methanation

CO₂ is the main component of greenhouse gases and also an important carbon source. The hydrogenation of CO₂ to methane using Ni-based catalysts can not only alleviate CO₂ emissions but also obtain useful fuels. However, Ni-based catalysts face one major problem of the sintering of Ni nanoparticles in the process of CO₂ methanation. Thus, this work has synthesized a series of efficient and robust nickel silicate catalysts (NiPS-X) with different nickel content derived from nickel phyllosilicate by the hydrothermal method. It was found that the Ni loading plays a critical role in the structure and catalytic performance of the NiPS-X catalysts. The catalytic performance gradually increases with the increase of Ni loading. In particular, the highly dispersed NiPS-1.6 catalyst with a high Ni loading of 34.3 wt% could obtain the CO₂ conversion greater than 80%, and the methane selectivity was close to 100% for 48 h at 330 °C and the GHSV of 40,000 mL g^-1  h^-1 . The excellent catalytic property can be assigned to the high dispersion of Ni nanoparticles and the strong interaction between the active component and the carrier, which is derived from a unique layered silicate structure with lots of nickel phyllosilicate and a large number of Lewis acid sites.

Effect of Fe and Co promoters on CO methanation activity of nickel catalyst prepared by impregnation – co-precipitation method

Ni based catalysts supported on γ-Al2O3 that was unpromoted (Ni/γAl2O3) or promoted (Ni–Fe/γAl2O3, Ni–Co/γAl2O3, and Ni–Fe–Co/γAl2O3) were prepared using by the impregnation – co-precipitation method. Their catalytic performances for CO methanation were studied at 3 atm with a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 3000 ml/g/h of syngas with a molar ratio of H2/CO = 3 and in the temperature range between 130 and 350 °C. All promoters could improve nickel distribution, and decreased its particle sizes. It was found that the Ni–Co/γAl2O3 catalyst showed the highest catalytic performance for CO methanation in a low temperature range (<250 °C). The temperatures for the 20% CO conversion over Ni–Co/γAl2O3, Ni–Fe/γAl2O3, Ni–Fe–Co/γAl2O3 and Ni/γAl2O3 catalysts were 205, 253, 263 and 270 °C, respectively. The improved catalyst distribution by the addition of cobalt promoter caused the formation of β type nickel species which had an appropriate interacting strength with alumina support in the Ni–Co/γAl2O3. Though an addition of iron promoter improved catalyst distribution, the methane selectivity was lowered due to acceleration of both CO methanation and WGS reaction with the Ni–Fe/γAl2O3. Moreover, it was found that there was no synergetic effect from the binary Fe–Co promotors in the Ni–Fe–Co/γAl2O3 on catalytic activity for CO methanation.