Development of supported ruthenium catalyst for SNG process

High calorific value town gas, mainly methane, is supplied in the major urb an centers of Japan such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and so on, whereas liquefi ed petroleum gas (LPG), consisting of a mixture of propane and butane, is s till supplied to more localized areas. The IGF (integration of gas family) 21 plan has been proposed by the government to integrate the supply of gas. Introduction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility to a local area wil l require major investment costs that will be too expensive for a small gas provider. However, adoption of substitute natural gas (SNG) is expected to reduce the costs. SNG (CH4 enriched gas) can be obtained by low temperatur e steam reforming of LPG at around 450 degreesC with a low proportion of st eam/carbon (S/C). Therefore, SNG catalysts require higher activity for stea m reforming and strong resistance to carbon deposition. A newly developed c atalyst consisting of ruthenium, ceria and alumina was used in a preliminar y long run in the laboratory at 450 degreesC with S/C of 0.8 using LPG feed , mainly butane, which showed that the catalyst performance was stable even after 8000 h. Consequently, evaluation in the pilot plant was performed us ing streaming heavy naphtha, and the results indicated that the developed c atalyst may have the potential for industrial application.