Steam Reforming of Ethanol by a Nickel Nanowire Catalyst

Abstract

A nickel nanowire catalyst was prepared by a hard templating method, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 physical adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR). The catalytic properties of the nanowire catalyst in the ethanol steam reforming were compared with a metallic Ni catalyst which was prepared with nickel sponge. The characterization results showed that the nickel nanowire catalyst had high specific surface area and there was more NiO phase in the nickel nanowire catalyst than in the metallic Ni catalyst. The reaction results showed that the nickel nanowire catalyst had higher ethanol conversion and hydrogen yield than the metallic Ni catalyst.