Hydrogen Production by Steam Reforming of Propane over Promoted Ni/Y Zeolite Based Catalysts for Applications in the Hydrogen Station

Abstract

Considering the environmental issues such as climate change, the production of the clean fuels has recently received much attention in the world. At meanwhile on-site hydrogen stations compared to the conventional central production plants can play a vital role to reduce the high production and delivery costs. On the other hand, hydrogen as a key energy barrier and clean fuel is a potential candidate to be used in the modified combustion engines (bi-fueled and dual fuel powered vehicles) to reduce the CO2 emission. In fact, on-site hydrogen station attracted many researchers for implementation of renewable hydrogen. For such an approach, the development of catalysts and reaction conditions are vitally essential. Zeolites have shown high surface area, uniform porosity which provides high adsorption capacity and proper shape selectivity. At our previous work, it was found that Ni-Y zeolite exhibited good performance in the steam reforming (SR) of methane. In this research, X-Ni/Y zeolite (X = Cs and La), Ni/Y zeolite, and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts were prepared by an impregnation method. All catalysts were characterized by XRD, H2-TPR, SEM, TEM, FTIR, and N2-physisorption techniques. The steam reforming of propane was carried out in a fixed bed reactor at 800 °C, 8 bar and GHSV of 35,000 h-1. Moreover, for the better understanding on the effect of promoter and feed gas, the catalytic performance of the promoted catalysts in the SR of propane were compared with the results of the SR of methane.