Production of hydrogen by steam reforming of glycerin over alumina-supported metal catalysts

Use of biodiesel and its production are expected to grow steadily in the future. With the increase in production of biodiesel, there would be a glut of glycerin in the world market. Glycerin is a potential feedstock for hydrogen production because one mol of glycerin can produce up to four mols of hydrogen. However, less attention has been given for the production of hydrogen from glycerin. The objective of this study is to develop, test and characterize promising catalysts for hydrogen generation from steam reforming of glycerin. Fourteen catalysts were prepared on ceramic foam monoliths (92% Al2O3, and 8% SiO2) by the incipient wetness technique. This paper discusses the effect of these catalysts on hydrogen selectivity and glycerin conversion in temperatures ranging from 600 to 900 °C. The effect of glycerin to water ratio, metal loading, and the feed flow rate (space velocity) was analyzed for the two best performing catalysts. Under the reaction conditions investigated in this study, Ni/Al2O3 and Rh/CeO2/Al2O3 were found as the best performing catalysts in terms of hydrogen selectivity and glycerin conversion. It was found that with the increase in water to glycerin molar ratio, hydrogen selectivity and glycerin conversion increased. About 80% of hydrogen selectivity was obtained with Ni/Al2O3, whereas the selectivity was 71% with Rh/CeO2/Al2O3 at 9:1 water to glycerin molar ratio, 900 °C temperature, and 0.15 ml/min feed flow rate (15300 GHSV). Although increase in metal loading increased glycerin conversion for both catalysts, hydrogen selectivity remained relatively unaffected. At 3.5 wt% of metal loading, the glycerin conversion was about 94% in both the catalysts.