Development of the catalysts with high activity and stability for the methane steam reforming has significant importance for the practical application of the process of nature gas steam reforming in fuel cell. The catalytic performances of Ni/ZrO2 in the steam reforming of methane were investigated in this paper. The influences of the reduction temperatures of the catalyst, calcination temperatures of ZrO2 support, reaction temperature, ratios of feed gas and space velocities on the catalytic performance of Ni/ZrO2 were examined. The structure of the catalyst was characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS and TPR. The experimental results indicate that Ni/ZrO2 catalyst had relatively high activity and stability in the steam reforming of methane. No significant influence was observed on the catalytic activity when the calcination temperatures of the support changed from 550 ℃ to 850 ℃. The catalyst reduced at 550 ℃ showed somewhat higher activity, but a little influence on CO selectivity in the range of reduction temperature from 450 ℃ to 750 ℃. The conversion of methane increased with an increase of H2O/CH4 ratio, while CO selectivity decreased. The conversion of methane and CO selectivity decreased with an increase of space velocity. The result of 85% methane conversion and 70% CO selectivity was obtained over 10% Ni/ZrO2 catalyst under the conditions of 650 ℃, 1.984×104 h－1 and H2O∶CH4∶N2=2∶1∶2.67.
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