(117d) Catalytic Studies of Reforming of Oxygenates
AIChE Annual Meeting
2011
2011 Annual Meeting
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division
Reaction Engineering for Biomass Conversion II
Monday, October 17, 2011 - 1:30pm to 1:50pm
Aqueous phase catalytic reforming is a promising technology for the production of hydrogen from biomass feedstocks. Challenges arise from intrinsic properties of biomass processes such as low thermal stability of reactants and support stability. To rationally design catalysts for biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals, a fundamental understanding of surface processes must be linked to reactor scale performance. Previous studies under ultrahigh vacuum conditions have found that the reforming activity was higher for Ni/Pt than either monometallic Pt or Ni. The objective of this work is to correlate these findings with supported catalysts under aqueous phase reforming conditions. Using ethylene glycol as a model biomass compound, the aqueous phase reforming of ethylene glycol was studied on Pt/γ-Al2O3, Ni/γ-Al2O3, and NiPt /γ-Al2O3 in a packed bed reactor. Under the experimental conditions used, the Ni catalyst deactivates quickly. The bimetallic catalyst NiPt /γ-Al2O3 exhibited higher activity than the monometallic Pt catalyst, which is in agreement with literature. The catalysts have been characterized using chemisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAFS).