The nature of the deposited carbon at methane cracking over a nickel loaded wood-char

The catalytic properties of raw biomass chars and Ni-loaded biomass chars prepared at a high-heating-rate were assessed in the methane decomposition reaction. The raw chars exhibited a moderated catalytic activity in methane cracking while the Ni-loaded chars showed a catalytic activity 10 times higher than the raw chars. The deposited carbon was a highly ordered one as evidenced by XRD, Raman analysis and oxygen reactivity tests. The activation energy in the combustion reaction was estimated to be 300 kJ/mol. These results indicate that biomass char can be an effective low-cost and active support for metal impregnation to be used in catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons for hydrogen production. (C) 2015 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.