Sustainable hydrogen production from bio-oil model compounds (meta-xylene) and mixtures (1-butanol, meta-xylene and furfural)

Abstract In the present work m-xylene and an equimolecular mixture of m-xylene, 1-butanol and furfural, all of them bio-oil model compounds, were studied in steam reforming (SR) conditions. Three different nickel catalysts, which showed to be active in 1-butanol SR (Ni/Al 2 O 3 , Ni/CeO 2 –Al 2 O 3 and Ni/La 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 ), were tested and compared with thermodynamic equilibrium values. Tests were carried out at temperatures from 800 to 600 °C at atmospheric pressure with a steam to carbon ratio (S/C) of 5.0. Despite the different bio-oils fed, the amount of moles going through the catalytic bed was kept constant in order to obtain comparable results. After their use, catalysts were characterized by different techniques and those values were correlated with the activity results. All catalysts were deactivated during the SR of the mixture, mainly by coking. The highest hydrogen yields were obtained with Ni/Al 2 O 3 and Ni/CeO 2 –Al 2 O 3 catalysts in the SR of m-xylene and SR of the mixture, respectively.