Steam reforming and water–gas shift of ethanol on Rh and Rh–Ce catalysts in a catalytic wall reactor Original Research Article

Ethanol is a renewable, portable, and non-toxic liquid that is a possible source of hydrogen for PEM fuel cells. This work describes an auto-thermal flat plate catalytic wall reactor for steam reforming of ethanol into H2 and CO2. Catalytic methane combustion on Pt is coupled to ethanol steam reforming on Rh and Rh–Ce across an auto-thermal wall.At a steam/carbon ratio of 3/1 the reactor gave >99% conversion of ethanol. An H2/CO ratio of 3/1 was obtained at a residence time of ∼100 ms and an upstream temperature of ∼800 °C. Methane selectivities of less than 1% were obtained with Rh–Ce.Water–gas shift was also considered in order to increase the H2/CO ratio. The reactor was lengthened to include a cooler water–gas shift section using a Pt–Ce catalyst. The extended reactor produced >99% conversion of ethanol and an H2/CO ratio of 30/1 at a steam/carbon ratio of 4/1. The residence time was ∼400 ms, and the upstream temperature was ∼900 °C in the extended reactor. The reactor was stable for at least 100 h with no detectable degradation in performance.