Effect of mesoporosity of bimetallic Ni-Ru-Al2O3 catalysts for hydrogen production during supercritical water gasification of glucose

Abstract

A well-known problem with metal supported alumina catalysts during gasification processes for H2 formation is catalyst deactivation by coke formation and pore plugging. Poorly controlled catalyst structure with low surface area and microporous structure also accounts for low catalyst activity. This work investigated bimetallic Ni-Ru/Al2O3 catalysts that are both effective and durable for glucose gasification in supercritical water with minimal coke formation. Both non-ionic (Pluronic P-123) and cationic (CTAB) templates were examined for mesoporous alumina synthesis with Ni and Ru loadings and compared with a conventional incipient impregnation method. Gas formation during SCWG catalysis was monitored for hydrogen formation while the catalysts were examined both before and after reaction by a variety of physico-chemical techniques including BET surface area, BJH pore size analysis, XRD, TG-DTA, TPR, TPO, Raman spectroscopy & TEM microscopy. The results showed that templating helped disperse both Ni and Ru particles homogeneously inside the pores of mesoporous Al2O3 catalysts; whereas the impregnated catalyst gave poorer dispersion. Comparing with the impregnation method, a six-fold increase of BET surface area was observed using the one-pot synthesis method. Hydrogen production during glucose gasification increased by 25mol% for both templated catalysts, with the CTAB catalyst showing slightly higher activity. This method provided insignificant coke deposition indicating that the new Ru-Ni/Al2O3 templated catalyst is promising for the development of hydrogen production for an emerging biorefinery.