Hydrogen production by low-temperature reforming of organic compounds in bio-oil over a CNT-promoting Ni catalyst

Present study reports on high catalytic activity of CNTs-supported Ni catalyst (x% Ni-CNTs) synthesized by the homogeneous deposition-precipitation method, which was successfully applied for low-temperature reforming of organic compounds in bio-oil. The optimal Ni-loading content was about 15 wt%. The H-2 yield over the 15 wt% Ni-CNTs catalyst reached about 92.5% at 550 degrees C. The influences of the reforming temperature (T), the molar ratio of steam to carbon fed (S/C) and the current (I) passing through the catalyst, on the reforming process of the bio-oil over the Ni-CNTs' catalysts were investigated using the stream as the carrier gas in the reforming reactor. The features of the Ni-CNTs' catalysts with different loading contents of Ni were investigated via XRD, XPS, TEM, ICP/AES, H-2-TPD and the N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherms. From these analyses, it was found that the uniform and narrow distribution with smaller Ni particle size as well as higher Ni dispersion was realized for the CNTs-supported Ni catalyst, leading to excellent low-temperature reforming of oxygenated organic compounds in bio-oil. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.