Sustainable H₂ production from ethanol steam reforming over a macro-mesoporous Ni/Mg-Al-O catalytic monolith

Abstract

A macro-meso-porous monolithic Ni-based catalyst was prepared via an impregnation route using polystyrene foam as the template and then used in the steam reforming of ethanol to produce a H₂-rich gas. The Ni/Mg-Al catalyst has a hierarchically macro-meso-porous structure as indicated by photographs and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface area of the catalyst was 230 m²∙g^-1 and the Ni dispersion was 5.62%. Compared to the pelletized sample that was prepared without a template, the macro-meso-porous Ni/Mg-Al monolith exhibited superior reactivity in terms of H₂ production and also had lower CH₄ yields at 700ºC and 800ºC. Furthermore, the monolithic catalyst maintained excellent activity and H₂ selectivity after 100-h on-stream at 700^oC, as well as good resistance to coking and metal sintering.

Keywords

macroporous Ni-based catalyst / monolith / hydrogen production / ethanol steam reforming

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Program of Introducing Talents to the University Disciplines under file number B06006, and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teams in Universities under file number IRT 0641.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg