Hydrogen production from ethanol for fuel cells applications is a promising technology for sustainable electric power generation. However, there are still challenges to be addressed for this technology to achieve economic viability, mainly due to the high cost of hydrogen. To overcome this barrier, it is necessary to develop a catalyst that is active, stable and selective to hydrogen without significant by-products formation. The aim of this work is to show the recent developments in catalyst design to meet those requirements. The reaction mechanism was studied by using infrared spectroscopy and temperature programmed techniques.
ZrO₂, CeO₂, CeZrO₂, La₂O₃, MgO and Y₂O₃ were used as supports. Pt was deposited over these materials by incipient wetness impregnation. The samples were calcined at 673 K. Also prepared were ceria supported Rh, Ni, Co catalysts and a Ni-based perovskite. Catalysts were characterized by ethanol TPD and DRIFTS. The catalysts were tested for the steam reforming of ethanol (SR) reaction.
The ethanol conversion obtained during steam reforming of ethanol over supported Pt catalysts significantly decreased, regardless of the support used. A comparison between the results obtained for supported Pt and support during SR revealed that all supports were more stable than their respective metal-based catalysts. Ceria supported Ni and Co catalysts and perovskite were quite stable after an initial deactivation period. The product distributions observed for each catalyst may be explained by a reaction mechanism determined by TPD and DRIFTS studies. The different reaction pathways were influenced by both the metal and the support.