Application of coprecipitated nickel catalyst to steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons in membrane reactor

The Ni/La-Al2O3 catalyst prepared by a coprecipitation method was employed to hydrogen production from steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons in a palladium membrane reactor. The catalyst was characterized by low temperature N-2 adsorption, H-2 temperature-programmed reduction, H-2-O-2 chemisorption, and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that there was a strong interaction between NiO and the support. In the I'd membrane reactor, due to the selective removal of H-2 by the membrane, the yield of H-2 was increased significantly, while the formation of methane was suppressed in contrast with the results in the conventional fixed-bed reactor. Even under the near-practical application conditions, e. g., high GHSV and small flux of sweep gas, high yield of H-2 and membrane separation efficiency were still obtained. Furthermore, no degradation of the membrane was observed even under working conditions of 823 K and steam-to-carbon feed ratio 2.7. This suggested that it was feasible to realize H-2 production from steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons using only one reactor and one nickel-based reforming catalyst at reaction temperatures lower than 823 K.