Study on steam reforming of coal tar over Ni[sbnd]Co/ceramic foam catalyst for hydrogen production: Effect of Ni/Co ratio

Abstract

The effect of Ni/Co ratio on the catalytic performance of NiCo/ceramic foam catalyst for hydrogen production by steam reforming of real coal tar was studied. The NiCo/ceramic foam catalyst was synthesized by deposition-precipitation (DP) method and characterized with different methods. The experiments were conducted in a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that the reducibility of the metallic oxides in bimetallic NiCo/ceramic foam catalysts was influenced obviously by the Ni/Co ratio.Both gas and hydrogen yield increased first and then decreased with the decline of Ni/Co ratio, and the highest hydrogen yield of 31.46 mmol g−1 was obtained when the Ni/Co ratio was 5/5. The lowest coke deposition of 0.34 wt% was generated at the same Ni/Co ratio. The lifetime test showed the catalyst maintained catalytic activity after 14 cycles (28 h), indicating the coal tar steam reforming on NiCo/ceramic foam catalyst is a promising method for hydrogen production.