Double bed reactor for the simultaneous steam reforming of ethanol and water gas shift reactions

The steam reforming of ethanol was studied at 400 ∘ C on a single catalytic bed reactor containing Co / SiO 2 alone or mixed with Fe 2 O 3 / Cr 2 O 3 and on a double bed system formed by Co / SiO 2 and Fe 2 O 3 / Cr 2 O 3 separate layers. Catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic absorption spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and temperature programmed reduction with hydrogen. After calcination at 600 ∘ C the Co / SiO 2 catalyst presents Co 3 O 4 as the main phase containing cobalt. The reduction of Co 3 O 4 to metallic Co and of Fe 2 O 3 to Fe 3 O 4 occurs at temperature near to 400 ∘ C . All catalytic systems had shown average conversion of 90% for the steam reforming of ethanol at 400 ∘ C . Hydrogen is the main constituent of the reaction effluent, which also contains CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 . The amounts of methane and CO produced with the double bed reactor were lower than that on pure Co / SiO 2 . Higher decrease of the CO content is observed for the single bed reactor with the Co / SiO 2 and Fe 2 O 3 / Cr 2 O 3 mixture. In this case, the decrease of CO content was about 80% compared to pure Co / SiO 2 .