Comparative Study of Power Law-Based Rate Models of Ethanol Steam Reforming for Hydrogen Production

Abstract

In the present study, the power law-based kinetic models of ethanol steam reforming from the published literature are evaluated to obtain the higher ethanol conversion and hydrogen yield. The kinetic models developed for Ni(16.1%)–Al₂O₃, Ni(43.6%)–Al–LDH, Ni–Al₂O₃–MgO and Ru–Al₂O₃ catalysts are used based on surface reaction mechanism of ethanol and water. Evaluation of four different is carried out and compared under the operating conditions of temperature, 873 K and the theoretical water/ethanol ratio, 3:1 for a space time of 0–6.97 g_cat h/g mol at atmospheric condition. The pseudo-homogeneous model of packed bed reactor is simulated using MATLAB (R2010a) with the assumptions of the steady-state, plug-flow and isothermal conditions. The model-predicted results show the good agreement with the experimental results obtained from the literature.