Activity of NiAl2O4 catalyst for steam reforming of methane under internal reforming fuel cell conditions

A new candidate anode material has been investigated for high temperature internal reforming fuel cell applications. Our investigation covers its physical properties, catalyst activation kinetics and catalytic activity for methane steam reforming. This report concerns mainly the catalytic activity of this material. Methane steam reforming was carried out at 1 atm pressure and in the temperature range of 600 - 900 degrees C, which would be of interest for low-to-medium temperature IR-SOFC applications. It was found that the catalyst has good activity at similar to 800 degrees C. The stability test was performed at 800 degrees C, S/C = 2 and W/F(CH4)degrees = 0.1815 g-hr/mole. It was found that the catalyst was relatively stable in a 250-hr on-stream operation.