Autothermal reforming of ethanol in a Pd–Ag/Ni composite membrane reactor

The main objective of this project is to study the hydrogen production reaction from oxidative steam reforming of bio-ethanol in the pertinent characteristics of a palladium–silver alloy membrane reactor. The enhancements of hydrogen permeation and of H2/N2 permselectivity were studied in a Ni–Pd–Ag ternary alloy membrane, which was fabricated by successive electroless plating of palladium and silver on stainless steel (PSS) supports modified with nickel electroplating. XRD, SEM, and EDS were used to characterize the surface morphology of the membranes. Ethanol–water mixture (nwater/nethanol = 1 or 3) and oxygen (noxygen/nethanol = 0.2 or 0.7) were fed concurrently into the membrane reactor packed with Zn–Cu commercial catalyst (MDC-3). The reaction temperatures were set at temperatures of 593–723 K and pressures of 3–10 atm. The amount of oxygen added in the feed has a significant effect on the steam reforming reaction of ethanol. At high pressures, autothermal reaction of ethanol with no need for external heating to the composite membrane reactor to produce high purity hydrogen was easily processed.