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AssigneeBASF SE
InventorsFranz Josef Broecker, Guenter Zirker, Bruno Triebskorn, Laszlo Marosi, Matthias Schwarzmann, Winfried Dethlefsen, Knut Kaempfer
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A two-stage process for the manufacture of methane from hydrocarbons is described. In the first stage, the hydrocarbons are converted into methane-rich gases, using the nickel catalyst described below. The cracked gases thus obtained are cooled and converted into methane-rich gases in a further catalytic process stage, using a methanization catalyst or the nickel catalyst mentioned below. To produce the nickel catalyst, the compound Ni.sub.6 Al.sub.2 (OH).sub.16.CO.sub.3.4H.sub.2 O is prepared in aqueous solution. The catalyst is obtained from this compound by drying, calcination and subsequent reduction in a stream of hydrogen whilst maintaining very specific temperature gradients between the drying stage and the calcination stage.
A process for the manufacture of methane by steam reforming of hydrocarbons of 2 to 30 C atoms or their mixtures on nickel catalysts at superatmospheric pressure, and after-treatment of the resulting cracked gases consisting essentially of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane and steam, wherein, in a first process stage, in order to produce gases containing methane, the hydrocarbon vapors or their mixtures together with steam are passed under superatmospheric pressure and at temperatures above 250.degree.C through the bed of a practically alkali-free supported nickel catalyst produced from the catalyst precursor Ni.sub.6 Al.sub.2 (OH).sub.16.CO.sub.3.4H.sub.2 O, wherein the catalyst precursor is manufactured by precipitating the compound Ni.sub.6 Al.sub.2 (OH).sub.16.CO.sub.3.4H.sub.2 O from aqueous solution, drying it at a temperature of from 80.degree. to 180.degree.C, calcining it at a temperature of from 300.degree. to 550.degree.C and subsequently reducing it in a stream of hydrogen, with the proviso that between the drying stage and the calcination stage the temperature is raised at a rate in the range from 1.60.degree. to 3.33.degree.C/minute, and the reaction products obtained after passing through the first process stage, in which the catalyst has been kept at temperatures from 300.degree. to 500.degree.C by the heat of reaction which was liberated, are cooled, and the gases consisting essentially of methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are passed, in a further catalytic process stage, under superatmospheric pressure and at temperatures of the gas mixtures from 200.degree. to 300.degree.C, through a bed of a low temperature naphtha cracking catalyst containing nickel.
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