Hydrogen Production by Steam-Reforming of Ethanol

We are capable of producing hydrogen from different sources, for example, coal, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, propane, methane, gasoline, light diesel, dry biomass, biomass-derived liquid fuels, such as methanol, biodiesel, and from water. Among the liquid sources to produce hydrogen, ethanol is an excellent aspirant. 

The Physical Chemistry of Materials Energy and Environmental Applications 

Tremendous progress is needed to obtain a highly selective catalyst to develop a process for hydrogen generation by ethanol steaming, which is a sustainable solution for the hydrogen production problem. 

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Fishtik, I. Alexander, A. Datta, R. Geana, D., A thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol via response reactions. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2000,25, 31-45. 

Freni, S., Mondello, N., Cavallaro, S., Cacciola, G., Parmon, V.N., and Sobyanin, V.A. Hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol A two step process. Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters, 2000, 71 (1), 143. 

Urasaki, K., Tokunaga, K., Seldne, Y., Kikuchi, E., and Matsukata, M. (2005) Hydrogen production by steam reforming of ethanol using cobalt and nickel catalysts supported on strontium titanate. Chem. Lett. (Jpru), 34 (5), 668-669. 

Liguras, D.K., Kondarides, D.I., and Verykios, X.E. Production of hydrogen for fuel cells by steam reforming of ethanol over supported noble metal catalysts. Applied Catalysis. B, Environmental, 2003, 43 (4), 345. 

Haryanto A, Fernando S, Murali N, Adhikari S (2005) Current status of hydrogen production techniques by steam reforming of ethanol a review. Energy Fuels 19 2098-2106... 

K. Urasaki, K. Tokunaga, Y. Sekine, M. Matsukata and E. Kikuchi, Production of hydrogen by steam reforming of ethanol over cobalt and nickel catalysts supported on perovskite-type oxides, Catal. Commun., 2008, 9, 600-604. 

Garcia, E. Y. Laborde, M. A., Hydrogen production by the steam reforming of ethanol Thermodynamic analysis. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 1991,16(5), 307-312. 

Cobalt-based catalysts are effective in the ethanol reformation to hydrogen. Many oxides have been used to prepare supported cobalt catalysts of low cobalt content (circa 1 wt%) by impregnation from a solution of Co2(CO)8 catalysts were used in the ethanol reformation as prepared [156]. The performance of the catalysts in the steam reforming of ethanol was related with the presence, under reaction conditions, of metallic (ferromagnetic) cobalt particles and oxidized cobalt species. An easy exchange between small metallic cobalt particles and oxidized cobalt species was found. Comparison of Co/ZnO catalysts prepared from Co2(CO)8 or from nitrate precursor indicated that the catalyst prepared from the carbonyl precursor was highly stable and more selective for the production of CO-free hydrogen... 

Ethanol is a natural renewable product normally produced from biomass, which is an important factor for near-zero carbon dioxide (C02) emissions. It is accessible, easy to transport, ecofriendly, nontoxic, and it can be transformed by catalytic reactions into hydrogen, which is important for fuel cell fuel processing [151], Section 9.8.10 discusses different processes for hydrogen production by the steam-reforming of ethanol. 

Another interesting field involving membrane reactors is the partial oxidation of methane to methanol, which is a process for the catalytic conversion of methane from natural gas and air oxygen to methanol by the partial oxidation as well as the steam reforming of methane, ethanol or glycerol for hydrogen production (Basile et a/., 2011 lulianelli et al, 2010,2011). 

Basile, A., Gallucci, F., luhanelli. A., De Falco, M., Liguori, S. (2008). Hydrogen production by ethanol steam reforming experimental study of a Pd-Ag membrane reactor and traditional reactor behaviour. International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, 6, A30. 

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