Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 142–143 (2013) 112–118 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Applied Catalysis B: Environmental jo ur nal home p ag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/apcatb Effect of the nature of the support on the activity of Pt-Sn based catalysts for hydrogen production by dehydrogenation of Ultra Low Sulfur Kerosene Jet A-1 Mélanie Taillades-Jacquin a,∗ , Carlo Resini a , Kan-Ern Liew a,b , Gilles Taillades a , Ilenia Gabellini c , David Wails c , Jacques Rozière a , Deborah Jones a a Institut Charles Gerhardt UMR 5253, Agrégats, Interfaces et Matériaux pour l’Energie, Université Montpellier 2, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France b Power Generation, EADS Innovation Works, Dept. IW-EP, Energy & Propulsion, 81663 Munich, Germany c Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, Blount’s Court, Sonning Common, Reading, RG4 9NH, United Kingdom a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 5 October 2012 Received in revised form 13 February 2013 Accepted 18 February 2013 Available online 26 February 2013 Keywords: Hydrogen production Partial dehydrogenation Ultra Low Sulfur Kerosene Pt-Sn/Al2O3 based catalysts Catalyst support influence a b s t r a c t Production of hydrogen on-board an airplane, to feed a fuel cell secondary power generation unit, is realisable by catalytic partial dehydrogenation of kerosene. The influence of the nature support on the partial dehydrogenation of Ultra Low Sulfur Kerosene Jet A-1 using Pt-Sn based catalysts is investigated in this work. The doping of an alumina support with barium oxide leads to a catalyst providing a productivity of 2000 NL H2 kg cat −1 h −1 with H 2 purity of 97 vol.%. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is a global motivation to develop greener technologies in transport applications and new developments in the electrifi- cation of aircraft technology represent an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among new methodologies, effi- cient on-board generation of hydrogen to feed a fuel cell secondary power generation unit would avoid problems of hydrogen storage and transport. On-board H 2 production attracts increasing interest [1–5] and the most promising method is the dehydrogenation of chemical hydrides, high hydrogen containing cyclic hydrocarbons, as their hydrogen storage capacity may lie in the range 6–8 wt% [4], and as their hydrogenation and dehydrogenation are reversible [4,6–9]. On-board the aircraft, the use of kerosene as source of hydrogen is of great interest [10] as the lack of oxygen in the kerosene composition makes it suitable for partial dehydrogena- tion to produce dehydrogenated hydrocarbons in the liquid phase and hydrogen in the gas phase. The hydrogen is free of CO and CO 2 and so can directly feed an on-board proton exchange membrane ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 467144620; fax: +33 46714 33 04. E-mail address: melanie.taillades-jacquin@univ-montp2.fr (M. Taillades-Jacquin). fuel cell (PEMFC) for supply of electrical energy to auxiliary sys- tems, without a purification step. The liquid phase, composed of partially dehydrogenated hydrocarbons, maintains its original fuel properties with the requisite specifications to be used as jet fuel. Noble metal and bimetallic catalysts, particularly with platinum and another metal have been investigated and reported to be active in the dehydrogenation of cycloalkanes [4,6,7,11,12]. Various sup- ports for Pt-containing catalysts have been investigated [4,7,11–13] and the different studies show the key role played by the support. The choice of the catalyst is crucial for the partial dehydro- genation process; it must produce H 2 without compromising the original fuel properties. An ideal catalyst must be sulfur toler- ant, generate sufficient hydrogen of high purity, be selective to dehydrogenation and avoid cracking reactions responsible for coke deposition and catalyst deactivation. Bimetallic Pt–Sn/-Al 2 O 3 based catalysts have been studied and reported in the literature. The presence of tin restricts sintering of Pt clusters, improves cata- lyst stability towards deactivation by coking, and restrains cracking reaction, while improving dehydrocyclisation reactions [11,14–17]. Also, it has been reported that the addition of alkaline earth metals as promoters neutralises surface acidity, inhibits coke deposition and increases the fraction of exposed metallic Pt surface after coke deposition [18–20] 0926-3373/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2013.02.037