Hydrogen production via catalytic steam reforming of the aqueous fraction of bio-oil using nickel-based coprecipitated catalysts

Hydrogen production was studied in the catalytic steam reforming of a synthetic and a real aqueous fraction of bio-oil. Ni/Al coprecipitated catalysts with varying nickel content (23, 28 and 33 relative atomic %) were prepared by an increasing pH technique and tested during 2 h under different experimental conditions in a small bench scale fixed bed setup. The 28% Ni catalyst yielded a more stable performance over time (steam-to-carbon molar ratio, S/C = 5.58) at 650 °C and a catalyst weight/organic flow rate (W/morg) ratio of 1.7 g catalyst min/g organic. Using the synthetic aqueous fraction as feed, almost complete overall carbon conversion to gas and hydrogen yields close to equilibrium could be obtained with the 28% Ni catalyst throughout. Up to 63% of overall carbon conversion to gas and an overall hydrogen yield of 0.09 g/g organic could be achieved when using the real aqueous fraction of bio-oil, but the catalyst performance showed a decay with time after 20 min of reaction due to severe coke deposition. Increasing the W/morg ratio up to 5 g catalyst min/g organic yielded a more stable catalyst performance throughout, but overall carbon conversion to gas did not surpass 83% and the overall hydrogen yield was only ca. 77% of the thermodynamic equilibrium. Increasing reaction temperatures (600–800 °C) up to 750 °C enhanced the overall carbon conversion to gas and the overall yield to hydrogen. However, at 800 °C the catalyst performance was slightly worse, as a result of an increase in thermal cracking reactions leading to an increased formation of carbon deposits.