Patent ID: 8304367

Claim:
A porous catalyst body for decomposing hydrocarbons which comprises at least magnesium, aluminum and nickel in such a manner that the magnesium and aluminum are present in the form of a composite oxide of magnesium and aluminum, and the nickel is present in the form of fine particles of metallic nickel having an average particle diameter of 1 to 20 nm; and which porous catalyst body has a magnesium element content of 10 to 50% by weight, an aluminum element content of 5 to 35% by weight and a nickel element content of 0.1 to 30% by weight, a pore volume of 0.01 to 0.5 cm 3 /g, an average pore diameter of not more than 300 Å and an average crushing strength of not less than 3 kgf.