Fuel-cell grade hydrogen production by coupling steam reforming of ethanol and carbon monoxide removal

Abstract

Challenges of coupling steam reforming of ethanol (SRE) and carbon monoxide (CO) removal to continuous fuel-cell grade hydrogen (H2) production were assessed. A SRE reactor, based on a previous optimized RhPt/CeO2SiO2 catalyst, was coupled to a CO removal reactor, based on AuCu/CeO2 catalysts with different Au:Cu weight ratios. Fuel-cell grade H2 was achieved with a Au1.0Cu1.0/CeO2 catalyst at 210 °C on the CO removal reactor. AuCu/CeO2 catalysts characterization suggests that Au favors CO conversion by the formation of possible Au0-COad species, and Cu improves CO2 yield by promoting oxygen vacancies on CeO2. However, operando DRIFTS by 95 h showed that Au1.0Cu1.0/CeO2 catalyst is susceptible to deactivation by the diminish on the COad species and oxygen vacancies, and the formation of carbonate species. These results allowed us to propose a cyclic reduction treatment to prevent catalyst deactivation of Au1.0Cu1.0/CeO2 (95 h of time-on-stream) while producing fuel-cell grade H2.