Study of the performance of Rh/La2O3-SiO2 and Rh/CeO2 catalysts for SR of ethanol in a conventional fixed-bed reactor and a membrane reactor

A slight difference in the hydrogen permeated/feed ethanol ratio was observed at higher sweep gas flow rates being higher for Rh supported on CeO2 in comparison with the Rh/La2O3-SiO2 catalyst. The best results were obtained with a H2O/Ethanol molar ratio equal to 10 and the highest membrane permeation area. Under these conditions, the H2 recovery reached values of about 70% and the hydrogen produced for each mole of ethanol exhibited the highest value close to 2.8.