Ethanol dry reforming over ordered mesoporous Co-Zn composite oxide for syngas production

This work is mainly concerned with the synthesis of Co-Zn nanocomposites by employing MCM-41 silica as hard template (CoZnO-HT) and its catalytic behavior toward to CO 2 reforming with ethanol. The physicochemical features of the as-prepared catalysts were probed through various characterization techniques, including XRD, TEM, BET, H 2 -TPR, and XPS. Indeed, CoZnO-HT catalyst possessed a highly ordered mesostructure with similarity to MCM-41 template and a higher specific surface area (304 m 2 /g) compared to the reference CoZnO-C sample (4.75 m 2 /g) prepared by the conventional impregnation method. Consequently, CoZnO-HT exhibited good performance at low temperature, and full ethanol conversion could be achieved at 550 °C as well as the negligible formation of byproduct acetone. In addition, this catalyst depicted good stability and no obvious deactivation was observed after 40 h time on stream tests under the stoichiometric feed ratio. Indeed, superior specific surface area and efficient mass transport within the mesopores might be critical factors assigned to better activity and stability for CoZnO-HT.