CO2 methanation on Ni/Y2O3 Catalysts: The effects of preparation procedure and cerium oxide promotion

[Display omitted] •CO2 methanation performance of Ni supported on Y2O3 and CeO2 catalysts was studied.•Y2O3-based catalyst outperforms industrial benchmark on activity and stability.•CeO2–doping further improves activity of Ni/Y2O3 catalyst.•Ni-Ce/Y2O3 is an active and stable catalyst for CO2 methanation.•Formal kinetic analysis of the methanation on Ni/Y2O3 systems was performed. Present paper reports on the CO2 methanation (CME) performance of novel Ni catalysts supported on yttria, ceria, and ceria-doped yttria carriers. Catalysts were synthesized using incipient wetness impregnation and precursor nitrate co-decomposition. These systems outperformed on a mass-specific basis an industrial Ni/alumina benchmark catalyst. In addition, this work examines in details the impact of both the preparation procedure and the Ni-content on the CME activity both in terms of the reaction rate and the apparent activation energy. Our research demonstrates that Y2O3 is an effective catalytic support promoting stability and activity of the catalysts. CeO2–doping further improves activity, remarkably with little to no penalty to the thermal stability of the catalysts. Comparison of the performance of a conventional IWI-synthesized Ni-catalyst with a counterpart obtained via a co-decomposition route, demonstrated an advantage of the latter. Our findings suggest Ni-CeO2/Y2O3 prepared via co-decomposition may be advised as the active and stable catalysts for CME applications.