Renewable hydrogen production by steam reforming of glycerol over Ni/CeO₂ catalyst prepared by precipitation deposition method

Abstract

Catalytic steam reforming of glycerol for renewable hydrogen generation has been investigated over Ni/CeO₂ catalyst prepared by precipitation-deposition method. The fresh and used catalysts were characterized by surface area and pore size analysis, X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron micrographs. Reforming experiments were carried out in a fixed bed tubular reactor at different temperatures (400–700 °C), glycerol concentrations (5–15 wt%) and contact times. (W/F _Ao =2−80 g-cat·h/mol of glycerol). The investigation revealed that the Ni/CeO₂ catalyst prepared by the above method is effective to produce high yield of hydrogen up to 5.6 (moles of H₂/moles of glycerol fed). The formation of methane and carbon monoxide was greatly reduced over this catalyst. Significantly low amount of coke deposition was observed on the CeO₂ supported catalyst. From the kinetic analysis, the activation energy for the steam reforming of glycerol was found to be 36.5 kJ/mol.