Development of catalysts for hydrogen production through the integration of steam reforming of methane and high temperature water gas shift

Trevor L. LeValley, Anthony R. Richard and Maohong Fan

Energy, 2015, vol. 90, issue P1, 748-758

Abstract: There is great concern about the increasing demand for energy with respect to carbon emissions, but hydrogen (H2), a clean fuel, could help alleviate this concern. The replacement of fossil fuels with H2 is cost prohibitive, but integration of SRM (steam reforming of methane) and WGS (water gas shift) could greatly decrease production costs. A composite catalyst of nickel, cerium, zirconium, and zinc was designed to provide activity in both the SRM and WGS reactions. The catalysts were characterized by a variety of techniques including BET (Brunauer Emmett Teller), TEM (transmission electron microscopy), SEM (scanning electron microscopy), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), and XRD (X-ray diffraction). It was found that the addition of zinc decreased the surface area, and therefore activity of the SRM reaction, although it increased WGS activity as observed by improved carbon dioxide selectivity and H2 production. Zinc also increased resistance to carbon deposition. Additionally, aging of precipitates during catalyst synthesis improved stability. A Ce/Zr/Zn catalyst doped with 10% Ni and aged for 2 h was found to have a final conversion of nearly 20% at 650 °C, and high CO2 selectivity around 55%. This catalyst is an important step in the emerging field of low temperature SRM, a field that could lead to a reduction in carbon emissions.

Keywords: Hydrogen energy; Low temperature steam reforming of methane; Water gas shift; Reduction in carbon emissions; Noble metal replacement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544215010014
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:90:y:2015:i:p1:p:748-758

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.07.106

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().