Kinetic and Thermal Analysis of Ru‐Doped Ni/Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 Catalyst for CO 2 Methanation

ABSTRACT CO 2 methanation shows advantages in power‐to‐gas technologies using renewable energy. The kinetic and thermal analysis enables to exactly evaluate methanation activity and avoid temperature shifts assigned to exotherm. In this article, Ru‐doped 30%Ni/Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 catalyst is prepared using one‐pot hydrolysis method. The results indicate that the activity is significantly enhanced at temperature over 300°C, leading to higher catalyst temperature than controlled temperature. The kinetic analysis obtains low activation energy of 63.8 kJ/mol than reported for Ni‐based catalysts for different models. The adsorption of H 2 and CO 2 is important for CO 2 methanation, and the activation energy is estimated as 61.6 kJ/mol when considering only H 2 and CO 2 adsorption. Significant hot spots are observed in a model tube reactor due to exothermal methanation according to the kinetic equation. The addition of CH 4 in the feed gas is considered an alternative way to decrease the temperature of hot spot.