Hydrogen Production By Ethanol Steam Reforming On Ni/oxide Catalysts

Hydrogen production from bio-fuels such as bio-ethanol provides significant environmental benefits since the resulted CO2 is consumed again for biomass growth, offering a carbon dioxide neutral energy source. In the actual conditions of increasing energy demand and atmosphere pollution, clean produced hydrogen can be an alternative option for a clean energy vector. In this paper we present the results obtained in hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol using oxide supported nickel catalysts. Although Ni is not the most active catalyst for this process, economically is the most attractive one, due to the high price and low availability of noble metals. Ni was dispersed on several oxides: ZrO2, Al2O3, Cr2O3, SiO2 with a target metal concentration of 8 wt.% using impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized using several techniques: N-2 adsorption desorption isotherms to determine total surface area and porosity, XRD to determine oxide crystallinity and Ni crystallite size. Each catalyst was tested in steam reforming of ethanol at temperatures ranging from 150 to 350 degrees C, at atmospheric pressure and a ethanol: steam ratio of 1:9. The best ethanol conversion and catalyst stability was obtained for Ni/Al2O3. The catalyst selectivity for H-2 production depends on the support nature. The best H-2 selectivity was obtained for Ni/ZrO2 catalyst.