ChemSusChem
| Renewable H2 from glycerol steam reforming: effect of La2O3 and CeO2 addition to Pt/Al2O3 catalysts. | |
| Tiziano Montini,[a] Rakesh Singh,[b, c] Piyali Das,[b, d] Barbara Lorenzut,[a] Nicolás Bertero,[b, e] Pietro Riello,[f] Alvise Benedetti,[f] Giuliano Giambastiani,[g] Claudio Bianchini,[g] Sergey Zinoviev,[b] Stanislav Miertus [b] and Paolo Fornasiero*[a, | |
| 2009 | |
| Hardcopy |
Abstract
Glycerol is the main by-product of biodiesel production and a surplus in its production is a direct consequence of the increasing biofuel demand. Therefore, glycerol conversion to H2-rich mixtures is not only an interesting research topic but more importantly an attractive way towards a sustainable biodiesel production. Here we explored the use of Pt/Al2O3-based catalysts for the catalytic steam reforming of glycerol, evidencing the influence of La2O3 or CeO2 doping on the catalyst activity and selectivity. The addition of the latter metal oxides to a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst is found to significantly improve the glycerol steam reforming, with high H2 and CO2 productions. A good catalyst stability is finally observed for the Pt/La2O3/Al2O3 system working at 350 °C, while the Pt/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst sharply deactivates after 20 h under similar conditions. Studies carried out on fresh and exhaust catalysts have revealed that both systems maintain high surface area and high Pt dispersion. Therefore, the observed catalyst deactivation can be attributed to coke deposition on the catalyst active sites throughout the catalytic process and marginally to the Pt nanoparticle sintering. This work suggests that an appropriate support composition is of mandatory importance for preparing highly performing Pt-based catalysts for the sustainable glycerol conversion into syn-gas.