Producing Hydrogen from Steam Reforming of Bio-oil Derived Oxygenated Model Compounds by Utilizing Ce-Modified Ni/Attapulgite Catalysts

Abstract

Steam reforming (SR) of bio-oil has been considered as one of the promising methods for hydrogen production. In this paper, cerium modified Ni/Attapulgite (ATP) catalysts were successfully synthesized by traditional chemical precipitation method and utilized for SR of various bio-oil derived oxygenated model compounds. The effect of Ce content on the structural properties of Ni/ATP was investigated by ICP-OES, N2 adsorption–desorption, XRD, H2-TPR and HRTEM characterizations. The results exhibited that 10Ce–Ni/ATP catalyst had the strongest metal-support interaction and highly dispersion of Ni species with smallest particle size of 6.21 nm. Therefore, it presented the maximum ethanol conversion of 97.21% and H2 yield of 83.15% at relative lower reaction temperature 500 °C during 4 h of SR of ethanol (SRE). In addition, it unfolded promising performance for SR of acetic acid (SRAA) and acetone (SRA). Furthermore, the influence of different oxygenates on the amount and nature of carbon deposits in used 10Ce–Ni/ATP catalyst was revealed by TG and Raman analyses. It found that the types of feedstock significantly affected the carbon species and amount and the formation of graphic layers around the Ni metal sites was the mainly factor for rapid deactivation of 10Ce–Ni/ATP during 4 h of SRA reaction.