Kinetic modeling of steam reforming of ethanol for the production of hydrogen over Co/Al2O3 catalyst

The kinetics study of steam reforming of ethanol was done using Co/Al2O3 catalysts to investigate the effect of reaction temperature, contact-time and steam to ethanol molar ratio on hydrogen production. Co/Al2O3 catalysts, prepared by wet impregnation method, were characterized for their surface area, pore volume, pore size and X-ray diffraction pattern. All the experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed tubular reactor. Surface reaction mechanism has been proposed based on the literature and product distribution obtained in the present study. The mechanistic kinetic model using Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L–H) approach was developed considering surface reaction mechanisms of steam reforming of ethanol, water gas shift and ethanol decomposition reactions. The kinetic parameters of the multi-response non-linear mechanistic kinetic model were estimated using a non-linear least-square regression by fitting the expression to the experimental data. A reasonably good fit of the data indicates that the formation of acetaldehyde from ethoxy is the rate-determining step (RDS) for reforming reaction. The kinetic model is able to describe the steam reforming of ethanol process adequately for a wide range of experimental data.