Development of Precious Metal Modified Spc-Ni/Mgal Catalyst for Hydrogen Station Application

Steam reforming of hydrocarbons over Ni-based hydrotalcite catalysts were carried out in a temperature range of 600 ~ 850 °C, at atmospheric pressure with a space velocity of 20,000 h-1 and feed molar ratio of H2O/C in the range of 1.0 ~ 3.0. Ni-based catalysts used in the present study were prepared by co-precipitation method and the prepared catalysts were characterized by N2-physisorption, TPR, XRD, TEM and SEM techniques. During the steam reforming of hydrocarbon carbon was found to be deposited on the surface of each catalyst. The activity of Ni/MgAl catalyst especially was found to be improved and constant for 200h under the tested conditions. However, catalyst deactivation due to sintering of active metal remained a problem. To overcome this problem, precious metals (Rh, Ru) modified Ni-based hydrotalcite catalysts were prepared by dipping method. Rh-modified Ni-based hydrotalcite catalyst however, showed higher resistance for the sintering of active metal than Ni-based hydrotalcite catalyst prepared by conventional method. It also showed higher resistance to the carbon formation compared to Ni-based catalysts. The long term stable activity upto 1024h was observed for steam reforming of LPG at 800°C. The results suggest that Rh modified Ni-based hydrotalcite catalyst can be considered as promising candidate to apply for the steam reforming of light hydrocarbon.