Experimental and Subsequent Mechanism Research on the Steam Reforming of Ethanol Over a Ni/CeO₂ Catalyst

Abstract

In the present work, ethanol has been selected as a model compound to represent the typical alcohols found in bio-oil. A stable Ni/CeO₂ catalyst has been designed for the production of hydrogen from catalytic steam reforming of ethanol in a continuous-flow fixed-bed reactor. The influence of reaction temperature, liquid hourly space velocity, and steam-to-carbon ratio were investigated. The Ni/CeO₂ catalyst performed with high activity for 30 h at optimal conditions and did not show any deactivation. Using density functional theory, the elementary reactions involved in the decomposition of ethanol on the Ni(111) surface have been systematically calculated. The optimal pathway for the ethanol steam reforming reaction process on the surface of the catalyst is proposed.

Keywords:

• Ethanol
• Steam reforming
• Hydrogen
• Density functional theory
• Biomass

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51106145), the National Science and Technology Supporting Plan (through contract 2011BAD22B07), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0741), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (R1110089), and the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20090101110034) for financial support.