In this research, a series of NiO–MgO–SiO₂ catalyst samples with various nickel contents (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt %) were prepared by a co-precipitation method followed by a hydrothermal treatment and employed in propane steam reforming. The analyses revealed that the enhancement of the nickel content up to 15 wt % improved the propane conversion to 98.6% at 550 °C. Nonetheless, further increase in the nickel loading reduced the catalyst activity due to the formation of larger and more poorly dispersed active sites. Besides, 15 wt % nickel loading led to the high resistance against coke deposition with no detectable carbon on the catalyst surface. In addition, it was revealed that, the decrease in steam to carbon (S/C) ratio caused further carbon depositions upon the catalyst surface as well as producing higher extents of undesired by-products. Besides, results proved that the alternation of reduction temperature within 500–650 °C caused a significant influence on the dispersion and particle size of metallic Ni. The accessible metallic Ni for reactants and consequently catalyst performance was strongly affected by reduction temperature. The results exhibited that the reduced catalyst at 550 °C possessed the highest activity with the lowest amount of by-products owning to the formation of highly dispersed small Ni species. Higher reduction temperatures accelerated the agglomeration of Ni species, which negatively affected the catalytic performance.

在这项研究中，通过共沉淀法制备了一系列镍含量分别为（5、10、15和20 wt％）的NiO-MgO-SiO ₂催化剂样品。一种水热处理并用于丙烷蒸汽重整。分析表明，将镍含量提高到15 wt％可以将丙烷转化率在550°C时提高到98.6％。然而，由于形成较大且分散较差的活性位，镍负载量的进一步增加降低了催化剂活性。此外，镍含量为15wt％导致对焦炭沉积的高抵抗力，在催化剂表面上没有可检测到的碳。另外，已经发现，蒸汽与碳（S / C）比的降低导致在催化剂表面上进一步的碳沉积以及产生更高程度的不期望的副产物。此外，结果证明，还原温度在500–650°C范围内变化对金属Ni的分散度和粒径有重大影响。反应物可及的金属Ni以及因此催化剂的性能受到还原温度的强烈影响。结果表明，还原的催化剂在550°C时具有最高的活性，而副产物的数量最少，这归因于形成高度分散的小Ni物种。较高的还原温度加速了Ni物种的团聚，这对催化性能产生了负面影响。