A Nanomesoporous Catalyst from Modified Red Mud and Its Application for Methane Decomposition to Hydrogen Production

A type of nanomesoporous modified red mud (MRM) catalyst was prepared and utilized for catalytic methane decomposition (CMD) to produce hydrogen. The modification process significantly simplified the mineral composition of the red mud (RM); in the meantime, the physical and chemical structure of RM was changed. TEM images suggested that MRM was a kind of nanomesoporous material assembled by a number of uniformly nanoscale particles, BET results showed that the pore size distributions of MRM were ranged from 3 to 12 nm, and the specific surface area and total pore volumes of red mud improved from 8.00 m2/g and 0.08 cm3/g to 190.61 m2/g and 0.39 cm3/g, respectively. The catalytic performance of the catalysts has been tested at 800°C; the results showed that MRM exhibited much higher activity and stability than RM for CMD.