Hydrogen production by glycerol dry reforming over rhenium promoted Ni-based catalyst supported on Santa Barbara Amorphous 15 (SBA-15)

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the glycerol dry reforming (GDR) reaction using rhenium (Re) promoted on Ni-based catalyst supported on Santa Barbara Amorphous 15 (SBA-15) for the production of hydrogen. In this study, the non-promoted (15%Ni/SBA-15) and promoted (3%Re-15%Ni/SBA-15) catalysts were first synthesized using wet impregnation method and their physicochemical characteristics were analyzed with Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric (TGA) analyses. Their performances were evaluated in GDR reaction and it was found that 3%Re-15%Ni/SBA-15 exhibited higher glycerol conversion (57%) and hydrogen yield (55%) than 15%Ni/SBA-15 (i.e., 20% glycerol conversion and 18% hydrogen yield). From the GDR study, the highest glycerol conversion (57%) and hydrogen yield (55%) for 3%Re-15%Ni/SBA-15 were obtained at 0.2 g catalyst, 700°C of reaction temperature, and CO₂ to glycerol ratio (CGR) of 1:1. The small crystallite size and BET surface area of 3%Re-15%Ni/SBA-15 had successfully reduced the carbon deposition and indirectly contributed to high glycerol conversion and product yield.

KEYWORDS:

• Glycerol
• dry reforming
• hydrogen
• SBA-15
• rhenium

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Pahang for the financial support through the research grant awards with vote number of FRGS/1/2018/TK02/UMP/02/12 (RDU190197) and RDU1803118.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia [FRGS/1/2018/TK02/UMP/02/12 (RDU190197)];Universiti Malaysia Pahang [RDU1803118].