Effect of Ceria Amount on Promoting Ni-Co/SBA-15 Catalyst for n-Dodecane Steam Reforming

Catalytic steam reforming of long-chain hydrocarbons has drawn great attention for hydrogen production, which can be used for on-board/on-site fuel cell. In this study, a series of SBA15 supported Ni-Co bi-metal catalysts with different ceria loadings (denoted as NC-xCeO(2)/SBA-15) have been prepared via a facile ethylene-glycol route. Various techniques including XRD, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, H-2-TPR/O-2-TPO, TPH, TEM/SEM, TG/DTG and Raman spectra were employed to characterize the fresh and spent catalysts. Steam reforming of n-dodecane has been carried out to evaluate catalytic perform-ance of the obtained catalysts at high LHSV (24 ml/g(cat).h) and atmospheric pressure in a fixed-bed tubular reactor using the H2O/C ratio of 4. The catalyst with 6wt% CeO2 (NC-6CeO(2)/SBA15) exhibits the best activity and stability. The improvement of performance for n-dodecane steam reforming is ascribed to the strong interaction between metal and ceria, which would control metal growth and prevent metal sintering. In addition, the oxidation of deposited coke on metal has been facilitated by the accompanied ceria promoter via its excellent oxygen storage-release capability.