Hydrogen production via glycerol dry reforming over La-Ni/Al 2 O3 catalyst

• Main Authors: Siew, Kah Weng, Lee, Hua Chyn, Jolius, Gimbun, Cheng, C. K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Chemical Engineering, Diponegoro University 2013
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/25334/1/Hydrogen%20production%20via%20glycerol%20dry%20reforming%20over%20La-Ni-Al%202%20O3%20catalyst.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/25334/; http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.8.2.4874.160-166; http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.8.2.4874.160-166
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Pahang

Glycerol (a bio-waste generated from biodiesel production) has been touted as a promising bio-syngas precursor via reforming route. Previous studies have indicated that carbon deposition is the major performance-limiting factor for nickel (Ni) catalyst during glycerol steam reforming. In the current paper, dry (CO2)-reforming of glycerol, a new reforming route was carried out over alumina (Al2O3)-supported non-promoted and lanthanum-promoted Ni catalysts. Both sets of catalysts were synthesized via wet co-impregnation procedure. The physicochemical characterization of the catalyst showed that the promoted catalyst possessed smaller metal crystallite size, hence higher metal dispersion compared to the virgin Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. This was also corroborated by the surface images captured by the FESEM analysis. In addition, BET surface area measurement gave 92.05m²/g for non-promoted Ni catalyst whilst promoted catalysts showed an average of 1 to 6% improvement depending on the La loading. Reaction studies at 873 K showed that glycerol dry reforming successfully produced H2 with glycerol conversion and H2 yield that peaked at 9.7% and 25% respectively over 2wt% La content. The optimum catalytic performance by 2%La-Ni/Al2O3 can be attributed to the larger BET surface area and smaller crystallite size that ensured accessibility of active catalytic sites.