Hydrogen production from butane steam reforming over Ni/Ag loaded MgAl2O4 catalyst

The intensive coke deposition and reforming at high temperature that occur in the case of the conventional Ni/γ-Al2O4 catalyst lead to rapid catalytic deactivation and reduced H2 production from the hydrocarbon steam-reforming reaction. We used the impregnation approach to synthesize MgO (30 wt%) Al2O4 catalysts loaded with bimetallic Ni(15 mol%)/Ag(15 mol%) or Ag/Ni and studied the steam reforming reactions of butane over these catalysts. The Ag-loaded catalyst exhibited significantly higher reforming reactivity compared to the conventional Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst. The main products from steam reforming over the Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst without the Ag component were H2, CO, CO2, and CH4, with a small amount of C2 ∼ hydrocarbons. However, the addition of Ag reduced the degree of carbon deposition and improved the H2 product selectivity by eliminating the formation of C2 ∼ hydrocarbons at temperatures below 750 °C. The catalytic performances differed according to the order in which the added metal precursors were impregnated in each step. The H2 production was maximized at 68% over Ni(9)/Ag(1)/MgAl2O4 at 700 °C for 1 h and this high performance continued for up to 53 h.