DEVELOPMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURED CATALYSTS FOR ETHANOL STEAM REFORMING

The increasing demand of energy and the need to reduce CO2 emissions have promoted the development of processes for sources alternative to oil, such as biomass. In this scenario, hydrogen can have a major role both as a fuel and as a reactant, but must be produced from its compounds. In this frame, ethanol is a very promising and renewable resource of H2, due to its high hydrogen content and it can be obtained by fermentation of biomass, including the lignocellulosic part. Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) is the catalytic pathway to reach the highest hydrogen yield and, hence, objective of this work is to investigate ESR catalyzed by supported non noble metals (Ni, Co). Two series of cerium oxide-based catalysts, composed by two monometallic Ni and Co and a bimetallic one, were prepared by impregnation and by reverse microemulsion methods, respectively, and tested in a micro plug-flow reactor. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized with x-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption/desorption, temperature programmed oxidation, in order to understand their catalytic performance features.