Carbon nanofibers-supported Ni catalyst for hydrogen production from bio-oil through low-temperature reforming

Abstract

Hydrogen is a clean energy with high heat value that has been widely used in industry. Previous studies indicate that biomass can be converted in to gaseous fuels (hydrogen), liquid fuels and other chemicals. Biomass is the only renewable carbon resource and has attracted increasing attention because of the increasing price of oil and its environmental friendliness. To decrease energy consumption and minimize cost, it is very important to develop a process to produce hydrogen from bio-oil by low temperature steam reforming over non-noble metal catalysts. This work reports a carbon nanofiberssupported Ni (Ni/CNFs) catalyst prepared by the homogeneous impregnation method. The Ni/CNFs catalyst was successfully used to produce hydrogen via low-temperature (350-550 °C) steam reforming of bio-oil. The effects of temperature and water steam/carbon molar ratio (nS/nC) on the reforming of bio-oil were investigated. The highest carbon conversion and H2yield over the 22% Ni/CNFs catalyst reached about 94.7% and 92.1%, respectively, at a reforming temperature of 550 °C. The Ni/CNFs catalyst containing a uniform Ni distribution exhibited a much higher activity in low-temperature reforming of bio-oil at 350-450 °C than the usual Ni/Al2O3catalyst. Reaction conditions were investigated and catalysts were characterized to reveal the relationship between catalyst structure and performance for hydrogen production from bio-oil. © Editorial office of Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica.