A highly efficient and stable Ni/SBA-15 catalyst for hydrogen production by ethanol steam reforming

The production of hydrogen by steam reforming of ethanol was carried out on SBA-15-supported nano NiO catalyst synthesized by the equivalent-volume impregnation method with two different Ni sources (nickel nitrate and nickel sulfamate). The catalyst was characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy to examine the physical and chemical properties. The activity tests were performed with the steam, with water/ethanol molar ratio ranging from 2:1 to 15:1, the N2 flow rate from 20 to 120 mL min−1 to determine the space-time, and the temperature range from 623 to 923 K on the two different Ni source catalysts. A favorable operating condition was established at 823 K using water/ethanol = 6 molar ratio and carrier gas (N2) flow of more than 50 mL min−1 for nickel nitrate source, but for nickel sulfamate source, the optimum temperature changed to 773 K and other conditions were the same as for the nickel nitrate source. After eliminating the influence of internal and external diffusion factors, an empirical power-law kinetic rate equation was derived from the experimental data. The non-linear regression method was used to estimate the kinetic parameter. The activation energy of the catalyst was then calculated, and the supported nickel nitrate and nickel sulfamate catalysts were 25.345 and 41.449 kJ mol−1, respectively, which was in agreement with the experimental and model-predicted results.