Highly active and stable Ni supported on CNTs-SiO2 fiber catalysts for steam reforming of ethanol

•A new kind of carbon nanotubes-silica fibrous composite (CNTs-SF) was successfully synthesized.•CNTs-SF was prepared by steam reforming of ethanol over Ni/silica fiber.•The fibrous composite was used as a support for ethanol steam reforming.•NiCNTs-SF catalyst exhibited the best performance in term of stability and high activity at lower reaction temperature.

In this research, a new kind of carbon nanotubes-silica fibrous composite (CNTs-SF) was successfully synthesized by the steam reforming of ethanol over a Ni/silica fiber catalyst prepared by electrospinning technique. The fibrous composite was then used as a support for the ethanol steam reforming by loading nickel at 5 and 10 wt%. The prepared catalysts were characterized by BET, SEM, TEM, XRD, TPR, and TG/DTG. The reaction performance of the NiCNTs-SF catalysts was investigated and compared with the Ni/silica fiber (NiSF) and Ni/silica porous (NiSP) catalysts. The effect of temperatures on the ethanol conversion and product distribution was studied in the range of 300 and 500 °C. The NiCNTs-SF catalyst exhibited the best performance in term of stability and high activity at lower reaction temperature. The outstanding performance of the NiCNTs-SF catalyst could be associated with highly metallic dispersion and easily accessible to the reactants.