Glycerol steam reforming over Ni catalysts supported on ceria and ceria-promoted alumina

In this paper glycerol steam reforming over Ni catalysts supported on bare CeO2 and Al2O3, and CeO2-promoted Al2O3 to produce H2 was studied. The catalytic activity results for the NiAl5Ce and NiAl10Ce catalysts showed that the incorporation of low ceria loadings enhances the activity of the NiAl catalyst prepared using a similar composition to the commercial Ni/Al2O3 catalysts. The catalyst surface characterization revealed that the good behaviour of the NiAl5Ce and the NiAl10Ce catalysts depends on the stabilization of Ni° particles which is promoted by the formation of nickel–ceria interactions. The increase of ceria content reduced the capacity of the NiAl20Ce catalyst to convert intermediate oxygenated hydrocarbons into H2.