Influence of Rh addition to transition metal-based catalysts in the oxidative steam reforming of acetic acid

Abstract

In this work, the Rh-promotion to transition metal (Ni and Co) CeO2-supported catalysts has been studied for the first time on the acetic acid oxidative steam reforming. Characterization of the prepared catalysts confirmed the promoting effect of rhodium addition, allowing lower crystallite size which increases the number of available active sites to reactants, along with higher reducibility as evidenced by temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR). The influence of the reaction temperature on the acetic acid conversion and hydrogen yield was assessed. Co-based catalysts achieved better catalytic performance than Ni-based samples, almost complete acetic acid conversion, and hydrogen yields were close to the equilibrium values at temperatures over 500 ºC. On the other hand, tests at higher weight-hour space velocity evidenced the superior activity of Co-Rh/CeO2 sample. This sample showed good stability with almost complete acetic acid conversion after 25 h time-on-stream, decreasing only the hydrogen yield by 7% after the first 8 h along with a slight increase in the acetone yield of about 6%. This suggests that after the acetic acid ketonization, acetone steam reforming advanced to a lesser extent on the reaction mechanism because of long-term slight catalyst deactivation.