Autothermal reforming of gasoline on Rh-based monolithic catalysts

With an objective to conserve noble metal usage and improve the reforming performance, one engineered catalyst, a Rh-based monolithic catalyst with an optimized composition of 0.3 wt%Rh/3 wt%MgO/20 wt%CeO2–ZrO2 supported on cordierite monolith was developed for autothermal reforming (ATR) of commercial gasoline and its surrogates. At a temperature range of 650–800∘C, O2/C molar ratio of 0.38–0.45 (air as oxygen source) and H2O/C ratio of 2.0, alkanes (e.g., octane) were fully converted into reformate with minor amount of CH4 remaining whereas aromatics (e.g., toluene) converted into CH4-free reformate at a relatively higher temperature. Compared with pellet catalysts, monolithic catalysts with equivalent amount of net catalytic components demonstrated higher activity and selectivity due to the intensified reforming process. This catalyst also showed quite good resilience to sulfur poisoning, although the presence of sulfur in source fuels could make the hydrogen productivity suffer. Moreover, one 1 kW gasoline fuel processor built on a scaled-up catalyst was successfully operated at a (H2+CO)(H2+CO) throughput of 0.9–1.0 m3/h for 60 h. The catalyst sintering and carbon formation which were exacerbated by sulfur-poisoning mainly accounted for the slowly deactivation of the catalyst. The sintering was also aggravated by the low thermal conductivity of the cordierite substrates and by the inharmonic reaction rates of catalytic partial oxidation and steam reforming. Additionally, some issues related to gasoline fuel processor and its monolithic catalysts were also addressed.