The dry reforming of methane over fly ash modified with different content levels of MgO

Abstract

Large amounts of industrial waste fly ash (FA) have caused serious pollution to the environment. There are a few reports that this kind of material, with its good thermal stability, can be used as a catalyst support for high-temperature catalytic reactions, and it has a certain application space. Upon the alkali treatment of fly ash, its specific surface area is increased, and it has the potential to be a catalyst support. Using treated fly ash as the carrier, a nickel-based catalyst was prepared via a sol–gel method, and the catalytic performance changes of catalysts with different MgO content levels in the dry reforming of methane are discussed. Under the conditions of a space velocity of 1.8 × 10⁴ mL g⁻¹ h⁻¹ and a reaction temperature of 750 °C, in the presence of Ni/NaFA-M2 (M2 = 20 wt% MgO), the CH₄ conversion rate can reach 84%, and it has good reaction stability. This will provide a way to use fly ash and carry out more research.