Ethanol Steam Reforming : the Impact of Reaction Conditions on the Catalytic Reaction during Hydrogen Fuel Production

  • Mrs Fei Wu, School of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Professor Jianxin Ma, Institute of Hydrogen Technologies, Tongji University, China
  • Mr Jian Zhang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Mrs Yao Zhang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • A/Professor Haipeng Wang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Mr Yuan Tian, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

    • In the present work, an alumina oxide-supported nickel catalyst was investigated for the steam reforming of ethanol. Experimental results showed that Ni/γ-Al2O3 is superior among the catalysts, especially in terms of selectivity and distribution of byproducts. Influential factors, such as reaction temperature, water to ethanol molar ratio, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) and Ni loading, were investigated using a Ni/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. The conversion was always complete at temperatures above 580oC, regardless of the changes in other reaction conditions. However, the selectivity to hydrogen was increased with the increase in temperature, H2O/EtOH molar ratio and Ni loading. A selectivity of up to 100% was reached under conditions of T=580oC, LHSV=5.0h-1, H2O/EtOH=9, and Ni loading= 20wt%. The effect of the influential factors on the side reactions and the distribution of byproducts were also discussed with the introduction of characterization technologies such as XRD, TPR and XPS.