Synthesis of nickel-cobalt impregnated catalyst using geothermal waste for hydrogen production

Abstract

Hydrogen is a renewable energy that has high combustion energy. It can be used to transportation fuel, also generate electricity for power generation and fuel cell. Ethanol steam reforming is a common process used to produce hydrogen. This process consists of ethanol decomposition, water shift gas reaction, methanation, carbon deposition and methane steam reforming. Temperature is an important parameter that affect to the hydrogen selectivity. High selectivity of hydrogen can be obtained in the high temperature that requires high energy. This problem can be solved by using catalyst. Nickel and cobalt supported by silica alumina catalyst is commonly used in ethanol steam reforming process to produce hydrogen. In this research, the support catalyst was synthesized from geothermal waste that contain silica trough hydrothermal process. Nickel and cobalt were used as the precursors of catalyst. Catalyst was used in the hydrogen production and produced 43.4% hydrogen yield by Ni/Geocat.