Abstract
Hydrogen (H2) is expected to become an important fuel for the future to be used as an energy carrier in automobiles and electric power plants. A promising route for H2 production involves catalytic reforming of a suitable primary fuel such as methanol or ethanol. Since ethanol is a renewable raw material and can be cheaply produced by the fermentation of biomass, the ethanol reforming for H2 production is beneficial to the environment. In the present study, the steam reforming of ethanol in the presence of added O2, which in the present study is referred to as oxidative steam reforming of ethanol (OSRE), was performed for the first time over a series of CuNiZnAl mixed oxide catalysts derived from layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors. The effects of Cu/Ni ratio, temperature, O2/ethanol ratio, contact time, CO co-feed and substitution of Cu/Ni by Co were investigated systematically in order to understand the influence of these parameters on the catalytic performance. An ethanol conversion close to 100% was noticed at 300 °C over all the catalysts. The Cu-rich catalysts favor the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. The addition of Ni was found to favor the C–C bond rupture, producing CO, CO2 and CH4. Depending upon the reaction condition, a H2 yield between 2.5 and 3.5 moles per mole of ethanol converted was obtained. A CoNi-based catalyst exhibited better catalytic performance with lower selectivity of undesirable byproducts, namely CH3CHO, CH4 and CO.
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Velu, S., Satoh, N., Gopinath, C.S. et al. Oxidative Reforming of Bio-Ethanol Over CuNiZnAl Mixed Oxide Catalysts for Hydrogen Production. Catalysis Letters 82, 145–152 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020516830768
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020516830768