Effect of process conditions on the steam reforming of ethanol with a nano-Ni/SiO2 catalyst.
In this paper, a nano-Ni/SiO2 catalyst was prepared by a sol-gel method and tested for hydrogen production from ethanol steam reforming using a two-stage fixed-bed reaction system. The reaction conditions, such as reaction temperature, water/ethanol ratio and sample feeding rate, were investigated with the prepared nano-Ni/SiO2 catalyst. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and porosity, temperature-programmed oxidation, X-ray diffraction and focused ion beam (FIB)/scanning electron microscopy were used in this work to analysis the fresh and/or reacted catalysts. An extended catalyst stability test for ethanol steam reforming with the Ni/SiO2 catalyst was carried out at a reaction temperature of 600 degrees C, when the water/ethanol ratio was kept at 3.5 and sample feeding rate was 4.74 g h(-1). The results showed that a stabilized gas and hydrogen production was obtained with a potential H2 production of about 40 wt.%. Increasing the reaction temperature during ethanol steam reforming with the Ni/SiO2 catalyst resulted in an increase of gas and hydrogen production. The gas yield was slightly reduced when the water/ethanol ratio was increased from 2.0 to 3.5. However, the potential H2 production was increased. The investigation of the sample feeding rate showed that the gas production per hour was increased due to the higher sample feeding rate, but the potential H2 production was reduced.
Energy & Resources Research Institute, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. wcf1314@gmail.com
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D002384:Catalysis; D000431:Ethanol; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013227:Steam
D013227:Steam; D000431:Ethanol; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D009532:Nickel