The Effect of Surface Acidic and Basic Properties on the Performance of Cobalt-Based Catalysts for Ethanol Steam Reforming

Abstract

In this study, the effect of surface acidic and basic properties of y-Al2O3-, ZrO2-, and CeO2-supported cobalt catalysts on their catalytic performance during ethanol steam reforming was investigated using various characterization techniques including temperature programmed desorption, CO2 and NH3 pulse chemisorption, and diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform spectroscopy. The steady-state reaction experiments showed that catalyst exhibited decreasing performance (i.e., less activity and worse stability) by following the order of Co/CeO2 > Co/ZrO2 > Co/Al2O3. Characterization results showed the catalysts had the reverse order of surface acidity (i.e., Co/CeO2 < Co/ZrO2 < Co/Al2O3), indicating that the performance difference could be attributed to the variation of surface acidic and basic properties in addition to the oxygen mobility variations reported previously.