Ethanol steam reforming reaction in a porous stainless steel supported palladium membrane reactor

In this experimental work, the ethanol steam reforming reaction is performed in a porous stainless steel supported palladium membrane reactor with the aim of investigating the influence of the membrane characteristics as well as of the reaction pressure. The membrane is prepared by electroless plating technique with the palladium layer around 25 mm deposited onto a stainless steel tubular macroporous support. The experimental campaign is directed both towards permeation and reaction tests. Firstly, pure He and H2 are supplied separately between 350 and 400 °C in the MR in permeator modality for calculating the ideal selectivity aH2/He. Thus, the MR is packed with 3 g of a commercial Co/Al2O3 catalyst and reaction tests are performed at 400 °C, by varying the reaction pressure from 3.0 to 8.0 bar. Experimental results in terms of ethanol conversions as well as recovery and purity of hydrogen are given and compared with some results in the same research field from the open literature. As best result of this work, 100% ethanol conversion is reached at 400 °C and 8 bar, recovering a hydrogen-rich stream consisting of more than 50% over the total hydrogen produced from reaction, having a purity around 65%.