Chemical Engineering Journal 118 (2006) 11–15 Methane steam reforming and ethanol steam reforming using a Ni(II)-Al(III) catalyst prepared from lamellar double hydroxides J. Comas, M.L. Dieuzeide, G. Baronetti, M. Laborde, N. Amadeo ∗ Laboratorio de Procesos Catal´ıticos, Dpto. Ingenier´ıa Qu´ımica, Facultad de Ingenier´ıa, Pabell´ on de Industrias, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), Buenos Aires, Argentina Received 11 November 2005; received in revised form 9 January 2006; accepted 10 January 2006 Abstract In this work the methane steam reforming (MSR) and the ethanol steam reforming (ESR) on Ni(II)-Al(III) catalyst prepared from lamellar double hydroxides (LDHs) as precursor are studied. A comprehensive analysis of the kinetics results obtained at different water/methane and water/ethanol feed ratio and its correlation with the structural characteristic and redox behavior of the catalyst is carried out. The results show evidence that the catalyst behavior is related with the presence of only one type of active site in the Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. The competition for the active sites between reactants is verified for MSR. This behavior is also observed in ethanol steam reforming since methane steam reforming determines the products distribution in the exit stream. There would be an optimum inlet water concentration that gives a maximum performance in terms of H 2 and CO 2 selectivity and, simultaneously, a minimum CO selectivity. This is a promissory result taking into account that the hydrogen flow entering a PEM fuel-cell requires a CO concentration lower than 20 ppm. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Steam reforming; Methane; Ethanol; Hydrogen production; Ni(II)-Al(III) LDH 1. Introduction In the last decade considerable efforts have been made to develop renewable energy technologies. They can contribute to solve the problems of energy supply, environment protection and regional development. In recent years, fuel cells have drawn the attention because they represent an alternative technology for power generation through the direct conversion of the chem- ical energy of the fuels in electrical energy. The hydrogen may become an important fuel in the future as an energy carrier for electrical vehicles and electric power plants. The bioethanol produced by biomass fermentation is an attractive source of hydrogen because of its high hydrogen content, non-toxicity and safe storage. Among the various processes and primary fuels that have been proposed for hydrogen production, steam reforming of ethanol becomes an interesting technology. Then, ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: norma@di.fcen.uba.ar (N. Amadeo). a promissory strategy consists of developing efficient catalysts for ethanol steam reforming (ESR). Different research groups have examined several solids as probable catalysts for this process [2–16]. In previous work [1,17] we have investigated the steam reforming of ethanol (ESR) based on Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalyst obtained from lamellar double hydroxides (LDHs) as precursors. We have proposed the following reactions scheme at 773 K, without impairing reactions responsible for carbon formation: C 2 H 5 OH + H 2 O → CO 2 + 2H 2 + CH 4 (a) CH 4 + H 2 O ⇔ CO + 3H 2 (b) CH 4 + 2H 2 O ⇔ CO 2 + 4H 2 (c) where reaction (a) proceeds up to completion and reactions (b) and (c) are considered as being close to equilibrium. The catalyst was stable for water/ethanol molar feed ratio higher than 3.3. At 773 K the H 2 yield obtained for water/ethanol molar feed ratio about 6 was 5.2 (being 6 the theoretical maximum). In order to optimize the Ni/Al catalyst behavior, the role of the 1385-8947/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cej.2006.01.003