Hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol over copper doped Ni/CeO 2 catalysts

Abstract

High surface area CeO 2 was prepared by the surfactant-assisted route and was employed as catalyst support. The 0–3 at.% Cu doped Cu-Ni/CeO 2 catalysts with 10 wt.% and 15 wt.% of total metal loading were prepared by an impregnation-coprecipitation method. The influence of Cu atomic content on the catalytic performance was investigated on the steam reforming of ethanol (SRE) for H 2 production and the catalysts were characterized by N 2 adsorption, inductively coupled plasma (ICP), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature-programmed rerduction (TPR) and H 2-pulse chemisorption techniques. The activity and products distribution behaviors of the catalysts were significantly affected by the doped Cu molar content based on the promotion effect on the dispersion of NiO particles and the interactions between Cu-Ni metal and CeO 2 support. Significant increase in the ethanol conversion and hydrogen selectivity were obtained when moderate Cu metal was doped into the Ni/CeO 2 catalyst. Over both of the 10Ni 98.5Cu 1.5/CeO 2 and 15Ni 98.5Cu 1.5/CeO 2 catalysts, more than 80% of ethanol conversion and 60% of H 2 selectivity were obtained in the ethanol steam-reforming when the reaction temperature was above 450 °C.