Carbon dioxide reforming of methane over supported molybdenum carbide catalysts

CO₂ reforming of CH₄ was carried out at 950°C and 1 atm using the 5 wt % Mo₂C-Al₂O₃, 5 wt % Mo₂C-ZrO₂ and 5 wt % Mo₂C-SiO₂ catalysts. With the Mo₂C-Al₂O₃ sample, 46 % of the total possible amount of carbide was formed during the TPR preparation step while, with Mo₂C-ZrO₂ sample, the amount of carbide formed was only 35%. A series of Mo₂C-ZrO₂ catalysts doped with 1 wt % metal oxide promoters (Ni, Bi, Co) to investigate their potential improvement to the activity of the catalyst. The presence of nickel and cobalt did not significantly change the percent CO₂ conversion relative to that with the unprompted Mo₂C-ZrO₂ catalyst. However, the 1 wt % Bi-5 wt % Mo₂C-ZrO₂ catalyst gave a CO₂ conversion of 74.6%.