Influence of nickel precursors on the properties and performance of Ni impregnated zeolite 5A and 13X catalysts in CO₂ methanation

Zeolite 13X and 5A supported Ni catalysts were synthesized for CO₂ methanation using the evaporation impregnation method. The influence of using different Ni precursors (nitrate, citrate, and acetate) as well as calcination temperatures on the catalyst properties and performance were investigated. XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, STEM-EDX, N₂ physisorption, H_2-TPR, TPD-NH₃ and TG/DTA were used for detailed characterization of the catalysts. The parent structure of the zeolites did not change during catalyst synthesis. Using nickel citrate and acetate resulted in smaller NiO particle size compared to nitrate. STEM-EDX results showed that all the Ni-precursor complexes entered more efficiently the 13X zeolite structure, which is mainly due to steric hindrance resulting from the smaller pore size of 5A. Methanation experiments revealed that the 13X catalysts synthesized using nickel citrate (5% Ni) displayed clearly higher activity, compared to the catalysts synthesized using nickel nitrate or nickel acetate. A 79% conversion at 320 °C was obtained with 100% selectivity towards CH₄ and the catalyst showed excellent stability during 200 h testing. Overall, it can be concluded that the Ni precursor significantly influences the physico-chemical characteristics and catalytic properties of Ni 13X and Ni 5A zeolite catalysts in CO₂ methanation: complex size and pore size matter.