Hydrogen production via steam reforming of propane over supported metal catalysts

Catalytic performance of supported metal catalysts for propane steam reforming reaction was investigated with respect to the nature, loading and mean crystallite size of metal as well as with respect to the nature of the support. Activity was found to be improved in the order Re<Ni<Pt<Ru<Ir<Rh, with Rh being one order of magnitude more active than Re. Increasing metal loading results in a significant shift of the C3H8 conversion curve toward lower temperatures. In the case of Ru/Al2O3 and Ru/TiO2 catalysts, turnover frequency (TOF) of C3H8 conversion increases by four orders of magnitude and by a factor of 5 with increasing Ru crystallite size in the ranges of 1.3-13.6 nm and 0.9-4.2 nm, respectively. Different results were obtained for Rh/Al2O3 catalysts, where TOF seems not to be appreciably affected by varying Rh particle size between 1.4 and 5.1 nm. The support nature affects significantly catalytic activity of Rh, which increases following the order CeO2<SiO2<Al2O3<ZrO2<TiO2<YSZ. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.