Low-temperature steam reforming process for hydrocarbons

Claim 1

In a process for manufacturing a methane-containing gas by subjecting steam-reformable feed hydrocarbons to adiabatic low-temperature steam reforming in the presence of a nickel catalyst, the improvement which comprises preheating a mixture of said feed hydrocarbon with steam, mixed in the ratio of moles of steam to the number of moles of carbon atoms in said feed hydrocarbon in the range of 0.9 to 5.0, to a temperature in the range of 250° to 600° C, feeding the preheated mixture into a steam reforming reaction zone containing a catalyst composition consisting essentially of (A) Ni--NiO--MgO or Ni--MgO, in which the atomic ratio of Ni/Mg is in the range of 0.5 to 5.0, (B) a member selected from the group consisting of Cu--Cr in oxide form and Cu--Cr--Mn in oxide form, the amount of component (B), calculated as the metals, being from 10 to 25 wt.% based on the nickel content, calculated as nickel metal, of component (A), and (C) up to 70 percent by weight, based on the combined weights of (A), (B) and (C), of a carrier substance selected from the group consisting of α-Al 2 O 3 , SiC, α-quartz and calcined ZrO 2 calcined at 1500° C for 20 hours, and effecting steam reforming of said feed hydrocarbons by maintaining the temperature of the said catalyst in the range of 300° to 600° C and the pressure of the reaction zone in the range of 10 to 100 kg/cm 2 G.