Ethanol steam reforming for hydrogen production under Ni/Ce catalysts

A series of Ni–Ce/mesopore Y catalysts were synthesized and evaluated in ethanol steam reforming (ESR) for hydrogen production. The catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation method and characterized by H₂-TPR, SEM, XRD, TGA, TEM, specific surface area and porosity analyzer to provide an insight for their role and mechanism in ethanol steam reforming. A comprehensive experiment process study was performed with the prepared catalyst by varying several parameters, which are the type of catalyst support (Meso-Y and Micro-Y), reaction temperature (500 °C–700 °C), steam to ethanol ratio (S/E value, 4:1 to 7:1) and the loading value of nickel (10 %–40 %). The results indicated that the prepared Ni-based catalyst showed good catalytic performance and its stability was significantly improved by the addition of Ce promoter. The catalyst showed the best catalytic and hydrogen production performance of 1.39 mmol/min at Ni loading content of 20 % for the Ni–Ce/meso-Y catalyst with S/E ratio of 7 and reaction temperature of 600 °C.