Influenced of Ni loading on SBA-15 synthesized from oil Palm ash silica for syngas production

The nickel loading (1-3wt.%) effect on SBA-15 prepared via sol-gel method for dry reforming of methane (DRM) was investigated. Silica source of sodium silicate-oil palm ash (Na₂SiO₃-OPA) was obtained from extraction of OPA using mass ratio Na₂SiO₃/P123~2.9. The SBA-15 was synthesized via hydrothermal treatment reflux route at treatment temperature of 80 °C. A vertical stainless steel fixed-bed reactor was applied for catalytic DRM process at 800 °C, atmosphere pressure and ratio CH₄:CO₂ is 1:1 for 30 h. Characteristic of structure SBA-15 was successfully analyzed by TEM, indicates to the positive role of Na₂SiO₃-OPA as silica sources. XRD, BET and FTIR results revealed that 2Ni/SBA-15 exhibited high surface area (460.89 m²/g) and pore diameter (6.53 nm), small NiO particle (14.71 nm) which assist good metal dispersion and led to better metal-support interaction. The increase of Ni loading from 1 to 3wt.% results in lowering the surface area and pore volume of catalyst as more Ni particles tend to agglomerate and positioning on the SBA-15 pores. The performance of Ni/SBA-15 catalyst in DRM decrease with the trend of 2Ni/SBA-15>3Ni/SBA-15>1Ni/SBA-15 whereby the H₂/CO followed the order of 2Ni/SBA-15≈3Ni/SBA-15>1Ni/SBA-15.These studies revealed the Ni loading influences the metal-support interaction and significantly affect the H₂/CO production.