Hydrogen production from chemical looping steam reforming of glycerol by Ni based Al-MCM-41 oxygen carriers in a fixed-bed reactor

This paper describes the synthesis of a series of Ni based Al-MCM-41 oxygen carriers with and without Ce promoter and their application in chemical looping steam reforming of glycerol. The Al-MCM-41 is derived from montmorillonite. The oxygen carriers were prepared by direct-synthesis and post-synthesis method. A variety of technologies including N-2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), H-2 temperature-programmed reduction (H-2-TPR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were conducted to characterize the fresh and used oxygen carriers. The results show the direct-synthesis oxygen carrier possesses excellent textual properties, such as high Ni loading, small particle size, large pore volume, and uniform pore size. The incorporation of Ce could effectively control particle size via strong metal support interaction, promote the homogeneous distribution of Ni, and enhance oxygen mobility capability and water gas shift reaction. And thus shorten 'dead time' during the fuel feed step. The CeNi/Al-MCM-41 displayed the superior activity and excellent long-term stability, which could be due to the strengthened anti-sintering and coke capability. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.