Furfural steam reforming over Ni-based catalysts. Influence of Ni incorporation method

•First time sepiolite is used as support of Ni-based catalyst in the stream reforming of furfural.•Ni supported on natural sepiolite shows high furfural conversion and hydrogen selectivity.•Precipitation method improves significantly the performance of sepiolite-based catalyst.

Catalytic steam reforming of biomass-derived compounds as furfural could be a promising option to produce renewable hydrogen; however efficient catalysts are still under study. Different commercial supports (SiO2, Al2O3, ASA, MgO, MgAl2O3, ZnO, TiO2, Natural Sepiolite) incorporating Ni by incipient wetness impregnation have been initially tested in the Steam Reforming of Furfural (SRF). Among them, Ni supported in natural sepiolite exhibited the best catalytic activity. In order to improve the catalytic performance of this sepiolite-based catalyst an alternative method for the incorporation of Ni was explored (precipitation). Precipitation method led to a Ni-based catalyst highly active and selective in the production of hydrogen. In addition, the production of undesired products (CO and acetone) decreased significantly. Characterization by BET area, XRD, TEM and TPR shows that precipitation method allows to synthesize a Ni-based catalyst with higher BET surface area and smaller metallic nickel particles. These particular physico-chemical properties seem to be the major responsible of the better catalytic performance exhibited by the material prepared by precipitation.