Hydrogen production via steam reforming of acetic acid over biochar-supported nickel catalysts

Development of high-performance and low-cost catalysts will make the biomass-derived hydrogen production technology, steam reforming of bio-oil, becomes to be more and more economical and promising. Biochar, which was produced via fast pyrolysis of rice husk, was activated by different methods, and then it was used as a support for the nickel catalyst, and tested in the steam reforming of acetic acid. The physicochemical properties of the Ni/biochar (BCx) catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM, TEM and H2-TPR. The development of pore structure and improvement of surface properties were achieved by the activation. Subsequently, the activity of several catalysts on hydrogen production was investigated. It was found that the Ni/BC4 catalyst (biochar activated by KOH alkalization coupled with HNO3 reflux) exhibited the best catalytic performance. Under the conditions of T = 700 °C, S/C = 2.5 and LHSV = 10 h−1, the carbon conversion and hydrogen yield reached to 91.2% and 71.2%, respectively.