TY - GEN A1 - González-Castaño, Miriam A1 - Saché, Estelle le A1 - Berry, Cameron A1 - Pastor-Pérez, Laura A1 - Arellano-Garcia, Harvey A1 - Wang, Qiang A1 - Ramirez Reina, Tomas T1 - Nickel Phosphide Catalysts as Efficient Systems for CO2 Upgrading via Dry Reforming of Methane T2 - Catalysts N2 - This work establishes the primordial role played by the support’s nature when aimed at the constitution of Ni2P active phases for supported catalysts. Thus, carbon dioxide reforming of methane was studied over three novel Ni2P catalysts supported on Al2O3, CeO2 and SiO2-Al2O3 oxides. The catalytic performance, shown by the catalysts’ series, decreased according to the sequence: Ni2P/Al2O3 > Ni2P/CeO2 > Ni2P/SiO2-Al2O3. The depleted CO2 conversion rates discerned for the Ni2P/SiO2-Al2O3 sample were associated to the high sintering rates, large amounts of coke deposits and lower fractions of Ni2P constituted in the catalyst surface. The strong deactivation issues found for the Ni2P/CeO2 catalyst, which also exhibited small amounts of Ni2P species, were majorly associated to Ni oxidation issues. Along with lower surface areas, oxidation reactions might also affect the catalytic behaviour exhibited by the Ni2P/CeO2 sample. With the highest conversion rate and optimal stabilities, the excellent performance depicted by the Ni2P/Al2O3 catalyst was mostly related to the noticeable larger fractions of Ni2P species established KW - Ni2P KW - supported catalysts KW - dry reforming of methane KW - Al2O3 KW - CeO2 KW - SiO2-Al2O3 Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/catal11040446 SN - 2073-4344 VL - 11 IS - 4 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Li, Bai A1 - Gao, Jiarong A1 - Wang, Xiuru A1 - Ma, Lan A1 - Cui, Qiang A1 - Veste, Maik T1 - Effects of biological soil crusts on water infiltration and evaporation Yanchi Ningxia, Maowusu Desert, China T2 - International Journal of Sediment Research N2 - Biological soil crusts serve as a vanguard for improving the ecological environment in arid, semi-arid desertification areas.It is a good indicator of the level of improvement which the local ecological evironment is undertaking. In desert areas, water condition is a key factor of improving the ecological environment. As a first layer protection, biological crusts play an important role in local vegetation succession due to their abilities to conserve and maintain moisture. Using Maowusu desert in Yanchi of Ningxia province as an example, after three years of research, this paper chooses three kinds of biological crusts including lichen, moss and cyanobacterial which are under the cover of Artemisia ordosicaas research objects. The results of this study indicate that, the closer biological crusts are to Artemisia ordosica vegetation, the thicker they become. In the same position of Artemisia ordosica vegetation, the thickness of moss crusts is the highest, followed by lichen crusts, and the thickness of cyanobacterial crusts is the lowest. Biological soil crusts coverage protects the natural water content of soil layers from 0 to 5cm. Also, it effects falling water to infiltrate deeper, and cannot prevent the surfacewater content from evaporating effectively. The effect of biological crusts blocking water infiltration decreases with the increase of rainfall. At the same rainfall level, moss crusts provide the strongest water infiltration blockage, followed by lichen crusts and cyanobacterial crusts. With the increase of rainfall, the depth of water infiltration increases.At the same rainfall level, the relationship of water infiltration depth is as follows: cyanobacterial crusts > lichen crusts > moss crusts. With the increase of biological crusts thickness, they blocking water infiltration capacity is stronger, and the depth of water infiltration is smaller. Analysis on the characteristic of simulated rainfall process on biological crusts shows that sandy land can be fixed by applying appropriate artificial biological crusts to build a sustainable forest protection system and to create a stable ecosystem in desertification area. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsrc.2016.05.005 SN - 1001-6279 VL - 31 IS - 4 SP - 311 EP - 323 ER -