Hydrogen production by oxidative steam reforming of ethanol over an Ir/CeO2 catalyst

Oxidative steam reforming of ethanol over an Ir/CeO2 catalyst was investigated. Ethanol dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde and decomposition to methane and carbon monoxide were the primary reactions at low temperatures, and complete reforming of ethanol was achieved at 773 K with hydrogen, carbon oxides and methane as the only products in the outlet stream. More importantly, stability test revealed that the Ir/CeO2 catalyst could show rather stable catalytic performance for 60 h time-on-stream without deactivation. The improvement was attributed to the effective prevention of the sintering of the highly dispersed Ir particles through the strong interaction between Ir and CeO2 and to the significant resistance to coke deposition due to the higher oxygen storage-release capacity of ceria.