Aqueous-phase reforming of Fischer-Tropsch alcohols over nickel-based catalysts to produce hydrogen: Product distribution and reaction pathways

Irene Coronado*, Martina Pitínová, Reetta Karinen, Matti Reinikainen, Riikka L. Puurunen, Juha Lehtonen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Catalytic aqueous-phase reforming (APR) can be applied to process the organic compounds in the water fractions derived from the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. This work aimed at finding an active nickel-based catalyst to convert organic compounds typically found in FT-derived waters, such as alcohols, into hydrogen. In addition, this work aimed at proposing potential reaction pathways that explain the product distribution resulting from the APR of C1–C3 alcohols. Solutions with 5% mass fraction of either methanol, ethanol, propan-1-ol or propan-2-ol in water were processed in APR at 230 °C and 3.2 MPa over different nickel-based catalysts in a continuous packed-bed reactor. Methanol was successfully reformed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide with conversions up to 60%. The conversion of C2–C3 alcohols achieved values in the range of 12% to 55%. The results obtained in the APR of C2–C3 alcohols suggest that in addition to reforming to hydrogen and carbon monoxide, the alcohols underwent dehydrogenation and decarbonylation. The most stable catalyst, nickel-copper supported on ceria-zirconia, reached feedstock conversions between 20% and 60% and high hydrogen selectivity. Monometallic nickel supported on ceria-zirconia catalysts reached higher H2 yields; however, the yield of side products, such as alkanes, was also higher over the monometallic catalysts. Accordingly, ceria-zirconia nickel-based supported catalysts constitute suitable candidates to process the alcohols in the water fractions derived from the FT synthesis.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)112-121
    JournalApplied Catalysis A: General
    Volume567
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 25 Oct 2018
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Funding

    The Bioeconomy Infrastructure and the Raw materials research infrastructure (RAMI) that permitted conducting the experimental work for this study at both VTT and Aalto University. This work was funded by Academy of Finland (AQUACAT Project no. 285398).

    Keywords

    • Alcohols
    • Aqueous-phase reforming
    • Fischer-Tropsch water fraction
    • Hydrogen
    • Nickel-based catalysts

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