Hydrogen production from steam reforming of ethylene glycol over supported nickel catalysts

A series of nickel catalysts were prepared by the impregnation and co-precipitation methods and characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, and H2 temperature-programmed reduction. The effects of nickel loading, calcination temperature, reaction temperature, support modification and cobalt oxide addition on the catalytic activity and selectivity to H2 in the steam reforming of ethylene glycol were investigated. The results indicate that the nickel catalyst prepared by co-precipitation has smaller particle size and relatively higher activity in comparison with the catalyst prepared by impregnation. Adding a small amount of cobalt oxide to the Ni/CeO2 catalysts can enhance the catalytic activity; over the Ni-Co bimetallic catalyst, the yield of hydrogen reaches 72.6%. Modifying CeO2 with Al2O3, TiO2 and ZrO2 also has a certain influence on the catalytic activity and the Ni/CeO2-Al2O3 catalyst exhibits the highest activity, with an ethylene glycol conversion of 94% to gaseous products and a hydrogen yield of 67%. However, Ni/CeO2-SiO2 shows a very low activity in spite of its large surface area and pore volume.