Ni/CeO2 Structured Catalysts for Solar Reforming of Spent Solvents

Abstract

Spent solvents of the packaging industry are disposed of, thus representing economic, safety, and environmental issues. Steam reforming of these solvent streams can be an alternative, allowing their valorization to syngas. In this work, ceria supported nickel catalysts were deposed onto silicon carbide (SiC) honeycomb monoliths; these structured catalysts can be potentially used in solar steam reforming. Catalysts were characterized by SEM/EDS and tested in a lab-scale rig under conventional heating. Two spent solvent streams, coming from the distillation plant of the packaging industry Icimendue, were used as fuels. Catalytic tests have been carried out by changing the steam/carbon ratio, oxygen/carbon ratio, operating pressure, and fuel. The effect of the Ni content and the type of ceria were also studied. The best performances were obtained at low Ni content and by using micrometric rather than nanometric ceria as support. The structured catalysts showed good coking resistance, especially at H2O/C > 2, with oxygen addition furnishing a marginal improvement. On the contrary, oxygen feeding reduced the gas yield due to the formation of by-products being less reactive in reforming reactions. Performing the reforming process at high pressure the gas yield increased due to faster kinetics (higher reactants concentrations), higher contact times (slower flow rates), and process intensification. These results suggest that the proposed structured catalysts could be successfully applied in the solar reforming of spent solvents.

Catalytic Applications of CeO2-Based Materials

“…The present Special Issue includes a work of Landi and Di Benedetto focused on the development of ceria supported nickel catalysts washcoated onto silicon carbide (SiC) honeycomb monoliths [16]. The performances of these structured catalysts have been evaluated under steam reforming to produce hydrogen from real spent solvent streams, coming from the distillation plant of the packaging industry company Icimendue.…”

Steam Reforming of Chloroform-Ethyl Acetate Mixture to Syngas over Ni-Cu Based Catalysts

“…Of course, the catalysts simultaneously containing noble and transition metals as an active phase are also used in steam reforming [22,23]. Among these catalysts, Ni-based catalysts are widely investigated due to their excellent activity and relatively low cost [24][25][26][27]. However, active catalytic Ni species are found to succumb to sintering at a high temperature, leading to deactivation during reforming [28], which can be inhibited by the incorporation of Cu [21,29].…”