Aqueous-phase reforming of biomass using various types of supported precious metal and raney-nickel catalysts for hydrogen production

Aqueous-phase reforming (APR) of real biomass was studied for production of hydrogen gas. Wheat straw, an abundant by-product from wheat production was used as representative lignocellulosic biomass. Wheat straw was hydrolyzed in an environmentally benign-sub critical water condition. APR experiments of wheat straw hydrolysates were performed using commercial catalysts which were made of Pt, Pd and Ru doped on carbon, activated carbon and alumina supports for production of hydrogen rich gas mixture. The activity and selectivity of two commercial raney-nickel catalysts were also monitored in terms of hydrogen production.Among the precious metal catalysts tested, activity of the metals for hydrogen production was in the following descending order: Pt > Ru > Pd. Results indicated that alumina support significantly lowered the catalytic performance of the catalysts. Based on whole catalyst material, raney-nickel catalysts were more active than supported precious metal catalysts tested.

Research highlights
► Hydrogen can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate by aqueous-phase reforming (APR).
► Pt on carbon catalyst show good performance for hydrogen production from wheat straw biomass hydrolysates by APR.
► Raney nickel catalysts are very active on degradation of organic compounds solubilized from lignin fraction of wheat straw biomass during APR process.