Steam reforming of ethanol over Pt–Ni Catalysts

A parametric study was conducted over Pt–Ni/δ-Al2O3 to explore the effect of Pt and Ni contents on the ethanol steam reforming characteristics of the bimetallic catalyst. Experiments with catalysts having 0.2–0.3 wt%Pt and 10–15 wt%Ni contents indicated that the best ethanol steam reforming performance is achieved over 0.3 wt%Pt–15 wt%Ni/δ-Al2O3. Kinetics of ethanol steam reforming was studied over this catalyst in the 673–823 K interval using differential and integral methods of data analysis. A power-function rate expression was obtained with reaction orders of 1.01 and −0.09 in ethanol and steam, respectively, and the apparent activation energy of ethanol steam reforming over 0.3 wt%Pt–15 wt%Ni/δ-Al2O3 was calculated as 59.3 ± 2.3 kJ mol−1.