Study of the performance of Rh/La2O3eSiO2 and Rh/CeO2 catalysts for SR of ethanol in a conventional fixed-bed reactor and a membrane reactor

ADRIANA M. DA SILVA, JOHN MUNERA, EDUARDO LOMBARDO, LAURA CORNAGLIA; ADRIANA M. DA SILVA,FABIO B. NORONHA; LISIANE V. MATTOS

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 40 p. 4154 - 4166

0360-3199

The performance of Rh/La2O3-SiO2 and Rh/CeO2 catalysts for steam reforming of ethanolwas investigated in a conventional fixed-bed reactor and a membrane reactor. This reactorwas built with a self-supported Pd-Ag membrane, and its performance was compared tothat the conventional reactor employing the same residence time and temperature. Theeffect of steam to ethanol molar ratio, ethanol concentration, temperature and contacttime over hydrogen permeation and hydrogen recovery was investigated. In all cases, theethanol conversion was kept at 100%, and the products formed were only H2, CO2, CO andCH4. In the membrane reactor, the overall ethanol reforming reaction was favored withoutthe formation of carbon deposits. The highest permeated and H2 recovery was obtained forlow ethanol content in the feed (high H2O/Ethanol ratio) and the methane formation wasunfavored, in agreement with the high production of hydrogen.A slight difference in the hydrogen permeated/feed ethanol ratio was observed athigher sweep gas flow rates being higher for Rh supported on CeO2 in comparison with theRh/La2O3-SiO2 catalyst. The best results were obtained with a H2O/Ethanol molar ratioequal to 10 and the highest membrane permeation area. Under these conditions, the H2recovery reached values of about 70% and the hydrogen produced for each mole of ethanolexhibited the highest value close to 2.8.