Ammonia decomposition over vanadium oxide supported Ni catalyst for hydrogen production

Abstract

The performance of vanadium oxides as support is investigated to develop a new nickel catalyst for ammonia decomposition to produce hydrogen. The catalytic activity is in the order of Ni/V2O3 > Ni/VO2 > Ni/V2O5, depending on the oxidation states of vanadium oxide. The VOx supports in all of the spent catalysts are V2O3, suggesting that V2O3 is the stable phase of VOx support during the ammonia decomposition. 3 wt%Ni/V2O3 gives an ammonia conversion of 38.3% (SV = 3000 L kg−1h−1) at 530 °C. Excellent active sites with a TOF of 33.6 s−1 at 500 °C form on 3 wt%Ni/V2O3. Ni/VOx works effectively as a catalyst for ammonia decomposition to produce hydrogen.