Steam reforming of ethanol over a NiZnAl catalysts. Influence of pre-reduction treatment with H2

M. NOELIA BARROSO; MANUEL F. GOMEZ; LUIS A. ARRÚA; M. CRISTINA ABELLO

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY

Año: 2007

0360-3199

The ethanol reforming reaction has been studied as an alternative for H2 production by using a NiZnAl catalyst. The catalyst, with Ni loading of 25 wt % and a Zn:Al atomic ratio approximately of 0.6, was prepared by the citrate method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, specific surface area BET, SEM-EDX, thermogravimetric analysis and temperature programmed reduction. The reaction was examined under different operation conditions in order to study the influence of the catalyst pre-reduction with H2. At low temperatures, the pre-reduced catalyst was more active than the catalyst without pre-reduction treatment. However, the catalyst without pre-reduction treatment becomes active under steam reforming conditions from 450ºC, achieving ethanol conversions of 100% with high yields to H2.