Sorption-Enhanced Steam Reforming of Glycerol for Hydrogen Production over a NiO/NiAl₂O₄ Catalyst and Li₂ZrO₃-Based Sorbent

This paper describes the synthesis and application of a NiO/NiAl₂O₄ catalyst and Li₂ZrO₃-based sorbent in sorption-enhanced glycerol steam reforming. A NiO/NiAl₂O₄ catalyst was prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation and co-precipitation method using a rising pH technique, and the NiAl₂O₄ crystalline spinel in the catalyst was formed under a high calcination temperature of 900 °C. The K-doped Li₂ZrO₃ sorbent was prepared by the solid-state method. The synthesized catalyst and sorbent were evaluated for H₂ production and CO₂ removal, respectively. Sorption-enhanced reforming (SER) hydrogen production possessing high initial H₂ purity with CO₂ removal was carried out during a multi-cycle reaction/regeneration process under 550 °C and a steam/carbon ratio of 3. CO₂ sorption capacity of the Li₂ZrO₃ sorbent was decreased with an increasing cycle number in SER. A kinetic model was proposed to understand the isothermal kinetics for multi-cycle SER CO₂ sorption over a K-Li₂ZrO₃ sorbent, and the breakthrough curves for each cycle were fitted on the basis of the derived kinetic parameters.