Glycerol steam reforming over modified Ru/Al2O3 catalysts

Glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel industry, could be utilized for the production of hydrogen via steam reforming. In the present work, three Ru-based catalysts, namely Ru/Al2O3, Ru/B2O3-Al2O3 and Ru/MgO-Al2O3, have been studied regarding their physicochemical and catalytic properties for the title reaction. N-2 adsorption desorption, powder XRD, CO Adsorption, NH3-TPD, CO2-TPD, TPR, TEM and SEM-EDS were employed to investigate the textural and structural characteristics of the catalysts. Quantitative assessment of the carbonaceous deposits, formed under reaction conditions, was performed using TPH and TPO methods The catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts for the glycerol steam reforming reaction has been investigated in a fixed bed plug flow reactor using a feed of water/glycerol at a molar ratio of 20:1 at 400, 500 and 600 degrees C. Results show that at the low reaction temperature (400 degrees C), the support has a determining role on the catalytic performance, the selectivity to various oxygenates depending on the acid-base properties of the catalyst. At higher temperature (600 degrees C) metal activity dominates, H-2 and CO2 being the main reaction products.