Hydrogen and carbon monoxide derivation over metal supported on fibrous silica KCC-1

Methane is the major component of natural gas that greatly contributes to a rise in global concentration of greenhouse gases. The greenhouses gases emission can be significantly reduced by partial oxidation of methane (POM) to the syngas. Additionally, syngas is an important gas material for the production of valuable chemicals and fuels in the industry. In this study, mesoporous silica KCC-1 catalyst was successfully prepared by using microwave assisted hydrothermal technique. Meanwhile, Rh/KCC-1 catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method using (RhCl₃.xH₂O) as a precursor. Their catalytic activity towards POM reaction was investigated by using fixed bed quartz reactor. Physicochemical properties of both catalysts were characterized with field emission spectroscopy (FESEM), nitrogen physisorption and pyrrole probed infrared spectroscopy. The results obtained suggest that KCC-1 and Rh/KCC-1 exhibited spherical morphology with a high surface area of 812 and 700 m²/g, respectively. In addition, both catalysts demonstrated a uniform mesopores with the presence of inter and intra-particle porosity. Pyrrole probed IR spectroscopy results showed that Rh/KCC-1 has low concentration of basic sites than KCC-1. The reduction of basic sites concentration gave a better selectivity of syngas product which caused the suppression of side reactions. Rh/KCC-1 exhibited better catalytic activity than KCC-1 with 99.92% conversion of methane and 97.54% selectivity of H₂ at 973 K. It was noteworthy that the addition of Rh significantly increased the rate of methane conversion and selectivity towards main product.