Hydrogen is widely used in industry e.g. for the synthesis of ammonia and methanol. Additionally, hydrogen is also considered as an attractive energy carrier since its sole combustion product is steam. The currently dominating process for the production of H2 is steam methane reforming (SMR), a highly endothermic process which releases a large quantity of CO2 into the atmosphere. In the SMR process, methane and steam are first catalytically reformed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide at 850-1000�C and 15-30 bar.1 This is followed by the moderately exothermic water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction to further convert CO into CO2. To avoid some of the disadvantages of the conventional steam methane reforming process, such as the harsh operating conditions (e.g. high reforming temperature), the so-called sorbent enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR) process has been proposed.2 In this process, the steam reforming of methane is run simultaneously with the water gas shift reaction and a CO2 abstraction reaction, e.g. the carbonation reaction of CaO at moderate temperatures (450-750 �C). Here, we study the sorption-enhanced production of H2 via the steam-methane reforming process using a material that contains both the reforming catalyst (Ni), and the CO2 sorbent, namely CaO. The development of such a bi-functional material was driven by a desire to increase the heat and mass-transfer characteristics between the endothermic reforming and exothermic carbonation reactions. The material was characterized using X-ray diffraction, N2 physisorption, transmission electron microscopy and temperature programmed reduction. The performance of the catalyst for the SE-SMR was compared to (i) a commercial Ni-SiO2 catalyst mixed with limestone and (ii) a Ni-hydrotalcite based catalyst mixed with limestone.References (1) Cobden, P. D.; van Beurden, P.; Reijers, H. T. J.; Elzinga, G. D.; Kluiters, S. C. A.; Dijkstra, J. W.; Jansen, D.; van den Brink, R. W. Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control 2007 , 1, 170-179.(2) Harrison, D. P. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2008 , 47, 6486-6501.

Sorbent enhanced methane reforming over a Ni-Ca-based, bi-functional catalyst sorbent

248th National Meeting (2014)

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