Hydrogen production by auto-thermal reforming of ethanol on Rh/Al2O3 catalysts

This study is focused to optimising a bio-ethanols/auto-thermal reforming process over 5% Rh/Al2O3 catalyst homemade, to produce syn-gas for fuel cell application. The effect of oxygen addition for a given S/C molar ratio ranging from 2,1 to 6,3 at T = 923 K was investigated, varying the O2/EtOH molar ratio between 0,2 – 1,1. The results have identified an optimum range in which the ethanol conversion is 100%, CH4 and CO productions go down and hydrogen yield reaches a maximum before decreasing because of the prevalent oxidizing action of oxygen. The obtained data, compared with those from Steam reforming process, gave a very clear indication about the potentiality of this process.