Hydrogen from steam reforming of ethanol. Characterization and performance of copper-nickel supported catalysts

The effect of the copper loading and calcination temperature on the structure and performance of Cu/Ni\K\gamma-Al2O3 catalysts is examined. TPR, XRD and N2O chemisorption techniques are employed. Activity and selectivity measurements are carried out considering steam reforming of ethanol as the test reaction. The appearance of CuO phase depends on copper loading and calcination temperature, whereas NiAl2O4 phase is present in all the analyzed samples. Copper dispersion is favored at lower copper loading. TOF values indicate that steam reforming of ethanol should be a structure-sensitivity reaction, at least under the experimental conditions used in this work. (C) 1998 International Association for Hydrogen Energy.